Poor Wittle CNN

“So, Senator Sanders, do you think that someone who’s profited from the current so-called healthcare system, like John Delaney, is qualified to tell you not to change it?”

is a different sort of question from

“So, Congressman Delaney, won’t good Americans run screaming from Senator Sanders’ rabid socialism?”

Similarly,

“Senator Warren, what percentage of federal discretionary spending now goes to militarism and what percentage should?”

is a different sort of question from

“Senator read more

Talk Nation Radio: Jeremy Kuzmarov on Obama’s Unending Wars

Jeremy Kuzmarov has taught at numerous colleges across the United States and is author of four books on U.S. foreign policy including The Russians are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce, with John Marciano and the new book that we will be discussing and which I highly recommend: Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State.

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

Download read more

Abolish Terrorist Agencies

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 28, 2019

Every government on earth, beginning with the United States, should shut down and be done with secret agencies, spy agencies, agencies used for murder, torture, bribery, election-manipulation, and coups.

While these agencies prevent the public from knowing what is being done in its name, they do not acquire any knowledge that benefits the public and that couldn’t have been acquired openly, lawfully, through simple research, diplomacy, and law-enforcement read more

Southeast Asia Was Hit By a Record-Breaking Disaster; It Was Called the United States

In my town in the United States — as is not especially unusual — we have big memorials in prominent public places marking some of the most catastrophically immoral actions of the past. Unfortunately, all five of these major monuments celebrate and glorify these past horrors, rather than reminding us not to repeat them. The University of Virginia is building a memorial to the enslaved people who built the University of Virginia. So, we will have five celebrations of evil, and one cautionary read more

Talk Nation Radio: Jeff Ostler on Surviving Genocide

Jeff Ostler is Beekman Professor of Northwest and Pacific History at the University of Oregon. He teaches courses on U.S. history and American Indian history. And he is the author of an important new book called Surviving Genocide: Native Nations and the United States from the American Revolution to Bleeding Kansas.

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

Download from LetsTryDemocracy, or from Internet Archive.

Pacifica stations can also download read more

Mike Gravel Should Be In the Debates

I spoke with Senator Mike Gravel on Thursday and asked him whether it seemed fair to him to be excluded from Democratic Party Presidential Primary debates on the basis of his performance in polls that did not include his name among those whom people could say they supported.

Of course, he said that it did not. But he also raised some additional questions, and told me what he would say if included in a debate.

Gravel said that 70,000 supporters had donated to his campaign. That means he has qualified read more

Is Tulsi Gabbard Qualified?

I want Tulsi Gabbard in the Democratic Presidential debates because she speaks out against wars. She raises the topic unasked. She wants various wars ended or not launched. She wants impeachment made automatic for presidents who launch wars. What’s not to love?

I also want Mike Gravel included for the same reason. If anything, he’s even better than Gabbard. But Gravel openly says he doesn’t want to be elected; he just wants to improve the debates. I wish Gabbard would say the same thing. read more

Military Bill Amended for the Better: This Pig Has Really, Really Good Lipstick

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, July 14, 2019

The latest U.S. House of Representatives version of the National Defense Authorization Act, which is beyond global in scope and not the least bit defensive, offended Donald Trump’s desire for limitless power and spending in dozens of ways detailed by the people he employs to write things longer than tweets — and that was before it was amended. And the amendments are shockingly good.

If you’re going to pass a stinker of a bill, piling several read more

U.S. House of Representatives Creates Requirement That There Be Some Basis for Any Foreign Bases

By a vote of 219 to 210, at 2:31 p.m. on Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed an amendment introduced by Congresswoman Ilhan Omar requiring that the U.S. military provide Congress with the cost and the supposed national security benefits of every foreign military base or foreign military operation.

World BEYOND War had flooded Congressional offices with the demand for Yes votes.

Here is the text of the amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act as passed:

At the end of read more

Join the CIA: Travel the World Passing Out Nuclear Blueprints

In the year 2000, the CIA gave Iran (slightly and obviously flawed) blueprints for a key component of a nuclear weapon. In 2006 James Risen wrote about this “operation” in his book State of War. In 2015, the United States prosecuted a former CIA agent, Jeffrey Sterling, for supposedly having leaked the story to Risen. In the course of the prosecution, the CIA made read more