Author: David Swanson

By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, and Elizabeth Murray, of Ground Zero Center for Nonviolent Action, published by Kitsap Sun, January 24, 2021

From January 18 to February 14, four large billboards are going up around Seattle that proclaim “Nuclear Weapons Are Now Illegal. Get them out of Puget Sound!”

What can this possibly mean? Nuclear weapons may be unpleasant, but what is illegal about them, and how can they be in Puget Sound?

Since 1970, under the Nuclear read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, January 22, 2021

Dear President Joe Biden,

Congratulations and best wishes!

The Pope of your church in October 2020 wrote these words:

“We can no longer think of war as a solution, because its risks will probably always be greater than its supposed benefits. In view of this, it is very difficult nowadays to invoke the rational criteria elaborated in earlier centuries to speak of the possibility of a ‘just war’. Never again war!”²⁴²

At footnote 242, Pope Francis read more

This week on Talk Nation Radio, the National Popular Vote and the Electoral College. Our guest is Pat Rosenstiel with NationalPopularVote.com, which advocates for “The National Popular Vote Interstate Compact.”

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

Download from LetsTryDemocracy.

Download from Internet Archive.

Pacifica stations can also download from Audioport.

Syndicated by Pacifica Network.

Please encourage your local read more

One of the many things we must rightly demand of the incoming U.S. government is the abandonment of rogue status, the serious participation in treaties, a cooperative and productive relationship with the rest of the world.

We’ve all heard about the Iran agreement, which ought to be re-joined and made into a treaty — and sanctions ought to be ended. Biden can do this alone, except for the ending sanctions part.

We’ve all heard about the Paris climate agreement, which ought to be re-joined and read more

“But where will you get the money?” is usually a right-wing question, completely forbidden during all discussions of the military and corporate bailouts and fossil-fuel subsidies and prison-building rampages, yet somehow immediately front-and-center with the pretense that it was always there whenever something good is proposed. “We have always been at war with East-Asia, er, with the Deficit.”

Biden’s new spending proposal (details here, read more

Salam Sarhan is Founder & Secretary-General of BPUR international ( https://bpur.org ). BPUR stands for Ban the Political Use of Religion. Salam Sarhan is a well published writer and journalist with three books and over one thousand articles on a wide range of subjects in Arabic and English. He has worked as a TV presenter, producer, business editor, and TV commentator for numerous leading media establishments, including read more

Eleven years ago, the Onion reported that the U.S. flag had been recalled after causing 143 million deaths. Last week, a Trumpy beat a Capitol Police officer with a pole holding a U.S. flag.

At first glance this seems like an amateur move. If you want the flag to maintain its power to mobilize the slaughter of men, women, children, and infants abroad, you shouldn’t actually beat cops with it at the U.S. Capitol. That might be so bad for the brand that major reliable supporters start deserting.

But read more

Victoria Nuland, former foreign policy adviser to vice president Dick Cheney, should not be nominated for Undersecretary of State, and if nominated should be rejected by the Senate.

Nuland played a key role in facilitating a coup in Ukraine that created a civil war costing 10,000 lives and displacing over a million people. She played a key role in arming Ukraine as well. She advocates radically increased military spending, NATO expansion, hostility toward Russia, and efforts to overthrow the Russian read more

In the past 150 years, U.S. presidents have lied, cheated, stolen, warmongered, incited hatred and violence, driven inequality and corruption through the roof, taken over major powers from the Congress and abused them, gained the power of nuclear war and abused it through numerous threats, accelerated the destruction of the earth’s environment, failed to protect the basic rights of people, pardoned their cronies for outrageous crimes, committed thousands of specific, open, public, and indisputable read more