Confronting Censorship in Ireland

According to exit polls from late May, an impressive 82% of Irish voters say Ireland should remain a neutral country in all aspects. But Ireland is not remaining a neutral country in all aspects, and there’s no indication of whether Irish voters know that, or specifically what they think of the fact that the United States military, year after year, ships large numbers of troops and weapons (and occasionally presidents) through Shannon Airport on their way to endless disastrous wars.

When peace read more

Anyone who’d rather not be shot should read this book

Thom Hartmann has long written and spoken on the topic of guns in the United States, along with many other topics. Of those topics he’s dealt with that I know anything about, I have not always agreed with him on every detail, but on most I’ve found him highly informative and persuasive. His new book, The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, is possibly the best book I’ve ever seen on its topic, both to read, and to pass along to anyone in the United States, whatever read more

Updated Data: Mass Shooters Still Disproportionately Veterans

Mother Jones magazine has updated its database of U.S. mass shootings. I’ve downloaded it and made a few changes, before posting it here.

The main change I’ve made has been to add a column indicating whether the shooter was a U.S. military veteran. I’ve also deleted some of the shooting incidents, reducing the list from 111 to 97 shootings. I’ve done this, just as I had done previously, in order to read more

Charlottesville Divests from Weapons and Fossil Fuels

World BEYOND War — June 3, 2019

On the evening of June 3, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Va., voted to divest the funds in its operating budget from weapons dealers and fossil fuel producers. Here’s the resolution as passed by the City Council: PDF. The city has also committed to taking the same step with its retirement fund by this coming autumn.

The proposal to do this was brought to the city in March by a coalition of groups called Divest Cville, which attended and spoke at city read more

Can World War II Say Me Too?

No matter how many times one presents the facts to people at real-world events, or through online media, progressive radio, and non-US television networks, there is simply no stopping virtually everyone in the United States believing the most ludicrous myths about World War II.

So, my new scheme for debunking is a Me Too one. Not that I mind promoting the Me Too movement. I think it’s a very welcome development in U.S. culture. I don’t, of course, have any use for the truly ridiculous position read more

Ten Questions About the Gulf War Monument Planned for Washington

Yes, they’re planning a monument to the Gulf War. I have some questions about the design.

  1. Really? Seriously? WTAF? Were there just not enough war monuments yet?
  2. There’s no monument to the arming of Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq War, without which there could have been no Gulf War, and no monument (yet) to the deadly sanctions and bombings that followed or to the 2003-begun war on Iraq, which couldn’t have happened without the Gulf War. Why pick out the Gulf War segment
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The Worst Statue in Charlottesville

A case can be made that just about any public statue in Charlottesville, Virginia, is the worst one. The much lamented statues of Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson are not alone in their offensiveness. Determining a winner in a contest for the worst monument in Charlottesville is not nearly as important, I think, as removing any of the lot of them from our central public spaces and installing them in a museum. I’m grateful to everyone who has advocated for the removal of any of these monstrosities read more

Talk Nation Radio: Ross Caputi on the Sacking of Fallujah

Ross Caputi is a PhD student in History at UMass and a coauthor of the critically important new book The Sacking of Fallujah: A People’s History. Ross Caputi’s experience as a U.S. Marine in Fallujah in 2004 compelled him to speak out against the war and to organize solidarity efforts with Fallujah. He is also a co-founder of the Islah Reparations Project.

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

Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.

Pacifica read more

U.S. Army: 0 — Internet: 1

The U.S. Army tweeted a harmless rah-rah tweet and got hit with a burst of reality never encountered on corporate-controlled media. Score one for the internet.

The Army asked: “How has serving impacted you?”

Here’s a tiny sample of the responses:

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