Talk Nation Radio: Lee Camp on Venezuela and Declaring Himself Governor of Idaho

Lee Camp is the head writer and host of the TV show “Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp” on RT America, which is watched by millions around the world. He’s a former contributor to The Onion, former staff humor writer for the Huffington Post, and had a hit web series called “Moment of Clarity.” He’s toured the country and the world with his fierce brand of standup comedy, and George Carlin’s daughter Kelly said he’s one of the few comics keeping her father’s torch lit. read more

Plutocratic Policy, Not Truth, Comes With a Bodyguard of Lies

At the recent World Economic Forum at Davos, a U.S. panelist claimed that high taxes on the super-wealthy and economic growth had never coexisted in any country ever. The moderator and other panelists were ready to move on, but someone had made the mistake of allowing a guy on the panel who would blurt out the obvious, and he did so, pointing out that those two things had coexisted for decades in the United States up through the 1960s.

While a whole catalog of plutocratic lies has been fine-tuned read more

The Russian Peace Threat

A lot more energy is invested by people in theorizing what respectable and corrupt influences motivate members of the U.S. Congress than at least some members of the U.S. Congress invest in thinking or in having opinions at all. If you’ve ever been the victim of one of those Tonight Show videos in which they ask you and other bumbling idiots on the street in Los Angeles to name a country, any country, or something else that easy, and you couldn’t do it, you may enjoy watching videos read more

The Shutdown Government Is Busy Figuring Out New Ways to Recruit Soldiers

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War

Shutdown or no shutdown, not a single war, base-construction project, or war ship has been halted in its course, and the National Commission on Military, National, and Public Service released its “interim report” on Wednesday.

The report comes after a lengthy period of collecting public comments and holding public hearings. At World BEYOND War we encouraged people to submit comments on the following themes, and we know that a great many people did so:

  1. End required selective service (draft) registration for men.
  2. Do not begin requiring that women register.
  3. If not ended, allow the choice of registering as a conscientious objector.
  4. If there must be non-military service, make sure that its pay and benefits are at least equal to those of military “service.”

The interim read more

Talk Nation Radio: Dana Frank on What the U.S. Is Doing to Honduras

Dana Frank is the author of The Long Honduran Night: Resistance, Terror, and the United States in the Aftermath of the Coup. She is professor of history emerita at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Since the 2009 military coup, her articles about human rights and U.S. policy in Honduras have appeared in outlets including the New York Times, The Nation, and Foreign Affairs, and she has testified before the U.S. Congress and the Canadian Parliament.

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David read more

Things Congress Could Do for Peace, From Easiest to Hardest

When talking about how to fund useful projects, or talking about the federal budget or the U.S. economy, talk as if U.S. military spending exists. With 67 percent of federal discretionary spending going to militarism, don’t talk about the “size” of the government as if only the other 33 percent exists. Be aware of the fact that military spending is an economic drain, not a jobs program, and speak accordingly.

Have a position on what a basic outline of the federal budget ought to look like. read more

Talk Nation Radio: Rob Kajiwara on U.S. Bases on Okinawa

Rob Kajiwara is an Okinawan-Hawaian singer-songwriter and visual artist. In 2017, he was made a cultural ambassador for his ancestral village of Nakagusuku, Okinawa. In 2018 he was also made a cultural ambassador / special envoy for Ke Aupuni o Hawaii (the Hawaiian Kingdom) in order to share Hawaiian history, culture, and issues in Ryukyu. Rob Kijiwara recently organized a petition to the White House about Okinawa that many of us joined him in delivering there on January 7th.

Stand With Okinawa.

read more