What The New Acceptability of the Lab Leak Origin Tells Us About Media Outlets

Have you noticed that a lot of science writers have lately been saying that they were perfectly right a year ago to mock and condemn even considering a lab leak origin for Coronavirus but that now it’s perfectly proper to admit that Coronavirus may very well have come from a lab? It seems to be largely a question of fashion. One doesn’t wear the wrong outfit too early in the season, or explore the wrong epidemiological idea when the White House is claimed by one Party or the other.

In March read more

60 Thousand Pentagon Spies Tripping Over Their Fake Clown Shoes

Of course there are 60,000 Pentagon super (duper!) spies prancing around the globe with tracking devices in their shoes, goofy wigs on their heads, collections of comical sunglasses, and — for the employee of the month! — silicon handsleeves and silicon faces to fool the airport cops, or maybe it’s the Vaccine Nazis, or perhaps it’s the Marxist conspiracy and election stealers denounced by the head of the Space Command who was fired last week for straying from his designated delusions.

After read more

Can You Hold These 12 Guns? Don’t Shoot Any Palestinians. Wink. Wink.

Scene 1: A Padded Cell

Congress: B. B. Bee. Bee. Bibi, Bibi, Bibi, are you there? Yes, just hold this rocket launcher, and this one, and this one, and, I’m just going to hang these grenades from each of your fingers, and, no don’t bend over, here, I’ll just put this strap over your shoulders, and can this gun fit in your back pocket, how about a few knives to strap on your legs, here, ooh, yes, here, have a seat in this F-16, THERE you go, and don’t go murdering any children — I say that read more

Talk World Radio: Katrina vanden Heuvel on U.S.-Russia Relations

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

Katrina vanden Heuvel is Editorial Director and Publisher of The Nation magazine. See https://thenation.com

She is also vice-president of the American Committee for U.S.-Russia Accord, a group interested in an informed dialogue about improving U.S.-Russia relations. See https://usrussiaaccord.com

Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
read more

Chile and Colombia to Move Money Out of Militaries

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 15, 2021

While the proposal for a global ceasefire during a disease pandemic has done the opposite of catching on, there are a few small signs of sanity and even of successful activism. While most big military spenders (including the super-mega-biggest one) have increased or kept their spending steady, the SIPRI numbers show a serious reduction from 2019 to 2020 in military read more

For Okinawa, Rahm Would Be a Knee on the Neck

If you don’t know much about Japan (and neither does Rahm Emanuel, the reported nominee for U.S. ambassador) a few relevant facts are these:

1) It’s right next to China which much of the U.S. government is eager for some sort of fight with.

2) Its Constitution (imposed by the U.S.) bans war, and the U.S. has been hard at work pressuring Japan to violate that bit since about 10 seconds after it was adopted.

3) It has colonized and abuses a separate set of islands, including Okinawa, where read more

Talk World Radio: Richard Falk on Peace, War, and the Life of a Citizen Pilgrim

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

This week on Talk World Radio, our guest is Richard Falk. Richard Falk is Albert G. Milbank Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University, and currently Chair of Global Law, Queen Mary University London. Falk served as UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Occupied Palestine (2008-2014). He has written several books. (Re)Imagining Humane Global read more

Beef Scam Tease: The Best Positions in U.S. Politics Are Always the Fake Ones

The only positions I ever get excited about in U.S. politics are the ones that Republicans pretend Democrats hold.

The beef one is no exception.

Lately, Republicans have been pretending not just that Democrats want the usual array of things I wish someone would actually act to institute (a guaranteed income, a decent minimum wage, single-payer healthcare, a Green New Deal, a major shift to progressive taxation, defunding militarism, making college free, etc.) — THE HORROR OF IT! — but also that read more

Talk World Radio: Veterans For Peace Take on Climate Collapse

Talk World Radio is recorded as audio and video on Riverside.fm. Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

This week on Talk World Radio we’re discussing the earth’s climate and militarism, and what Veterans For Peace is working on. Our guest is Vince Dijanich, a veteran of what the Vietnamese call “The American War,” and a founder of the Climate Crisis and Militarism Project at Veterans for Peace. Vince also works with the Climate Reality Project and read more