Of the United Nations’ 18 major human rights treaties, the United States is party to 5, fewer than any other nation on earth, except Bhutan (4), and tied with Malaysia, Myanmar, and South Sudan, a country torn by warfare since its creation in 2011. The United States is the only nation on earth that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child. It is the only country to have pulled out of the Paris
Talk Nation Radio: Leonard Higgins on Extinction Rebeliion
Leonard Higgins is a member of the Extinction Rebellion U.S. National Coordination Team and was a valve turner two years ago, one of a number of activists who took nonviolent action to shut off pipelines. Now new nonviolent actions are underway.
Learn more: http://rebellion.earth
contact xr@extinctionrebellion.us
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.
Syndicated
U.S. Military Out of Syria
U.S. President Donald Trump has announced his intention to remove all U.S. troops from Syria.
If that happens it will fulfill part of the demand that World BEYOND War has been making since Trump promised nine months ago to get “out” of Syria “like very soon.”
Removing troops from the ground — all of them, not just some — and ceasing base construction, if it happens, will be a start.
Even more important is ceasing to bomb from above.
In addition, alternative approaches need to be launched,
And So This Is Christmas
Christmas Day. Very late on this day and into the morning of the 26th in 1776, George Washington led a surprise night crossing of the Delaware River and bloody pre-dawn attack on unarmed hung-over-from-Christmas troops still in their underwear — a founding act of violence for the new nation to proudly remember as the progenitor of either the crimes of its “special” forces all over the globe or of peace on earth, I can never recall which.
A more useful memory is certainly that of the
Billboards to End War Going Up and Not Going Up
By David Swanson, Director, World BEYOND War
New billboards are going up around the United States and elsewhere opposing war. Some are not going up because the message is deemed unacceptable. Many more are being planned.
This ad at right is going up in various sizes and dimensions around Lansing, Michigan, thanks to the Peace Education Center. We’ll post the details on the billboards page when we have em.
The billboard below is going up for the month of January in Albany, NY — specifically on
The Self-Psychoanalysis of the American Liberal
Bryant Welch’s new edition of his book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, purports to diagnose the mental illness that produces support for and tolerance of Donald Trump in particular, and the Republican Party in general. To some extent it does so, although it’s mostly very familiar stuff, partly excusable because the first edition came out a decade ago. Welch, by the way, deserves credit for opposing participation in torture
The Abolition of War Requires New Thoughts, Words, and Actions
By David Swanson
Remarks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 12, 2018
Video is uploading now, at airplane internet speed, to Youtube.com/WorldBeyondWar
There’s action happening now in the U.S. Senate on ending U.S. participation in the war on Yemen. There’s a big loophole in the bill. There’s the matter of selling Saudi Arabia its weapons. There’s the House of Misrepresentatives to worry about. There’s the veto threat. There’s the question of getting compliance out of a president
Talk Nation Radio: Mark Colville Tells Why He Hammered and Poured Blood on Nuclear Weapons
Mark Colville is one of the seven Kings Bay Plowshares activists. We recorded this interview on December 11th 2018, and Mark planned to turn himself in hours later at the Glynn County Jail in Brunswick, Georgia. Learn more:
http://kingsbayplowshares7.org
https://www.facebook.com/Kingsbayplowshares
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from
The Ancient Mythical Rites of Pearl Harbor Day
Last week I spoke at a high school. As I often do, I told them I’d perform a magic trick. I only know one, but I know it will almost always work with no skill required. I scribbled on a piece of paper and folded it up. I asked someone to name a war that was justified. They of course said “World War II” and I opened up the paper, which read “World War II.” Magic!
I could do a second part with equal reliability. I ask “Why?” They say “the Holocaust.”
I could do a third part, as well.
Earth Over the Brink
Glacier National Park is drip drip dripping into a puddle.
People and companies and governments are cutting down trees to burn them to save the planet from global warming, mixing the sacrificial trees with oh-so-clean coal, and in Detroit with tires, and in North Carolina with chicken shit.
Others are hacking down old forests to grow marijuana where it’s least likely to be found: another great benefit of drug prohibition.
Over 95% of California’s wild game was mercilessly slaughtered between