South Korea cannot choose to make peace with North Korea without the consent of a foreign power that keeps thirty thousand troops in South Korea, makes South Korea pay much of the cost of housing them, commands the South Korean military in war, holds veto power at the United Nations, and is not accountable to the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.

The same foreign power has troops in almost every nation on earth, significant bases in about half the nations on earth, read more

An important job of any U.S. president is to propose an annual budget to Congress. Shouldn’t it be a basic job of every presidential candidate to propose one to the public? Isn’t a budget a critical moral and political document outlining what chunk of our public treasury should go to education or environmental protection or war?

The basic outline of such a budget could consist of a list or a pie chart communicating — in dollar amounts and/or percentages — how much government spending ought read more

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

“Be assured of one thing: whichever candidate you choose at the polls in November, you aren’t just electing a president of the United States; you are also electing an assassin-in-chief… In previous eras… presidents either stayed above the assassination fray or practiced a kind of plausible deniability about the acts. We are surely at a new stage in the history read more

Roger Hallam is a PhD researcher on civil disobedience at King’s College London and an organic vegetable farmer. He has been a vegan for 34 years. In 2018 he co-founded Extinction Rebellion. He has also just authored a terrific short book called Common Sense for the 21st Century: Only Nonviolent Rebellion Can Now Stop Climate Breakdown and Social Collapse. His website is rogerhallam.com

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

Download from read more

I suppose you have to actually be convicted of a felony to be a felon, but I also think we should make an exception for U.S. presidents. Take the current one, for example. Donald Trump just murdered Iranian and Iraqi military officials at an airport in Baghdad. His staff later “briefed” Congress members on why these murders were “legal.” Congress members denounced the briefing as utter nonsense, and yet labeled read more

A petition supported by World BEYOND War, RootsAction.org, and Daily Kos, has thus far gathered over 12,000 signatures from people asking presidential candidates to propose federal budgets.

An important job of any U.S. president is to propose an annual budget to Congress. The basic outline of such a budget can consist of a list or a pie chart communicating — in dollar amounts and/or percentages — how much government spending ought to go where.

As far as we know, no non-incumbent candidate for read more

Lisa McCrea is an environmental and human rights activist, and the mother of five. She lived on the former George Air Force Base in California from 1987 to 1991. She found out 30 years after first stepping foot on the base that it was and is extremely contaminated with numerous toxic substances, including nuclear waste. She became partially disabled in 1990 and completely disabled in 2003, at the age of 35, as a direct result of her contamination exposure. In 2017, she switched her focus from read more

This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.

In a way, many of us spent the Cold War years under our school desks. It was there that we kids were taught to “duck and cover,” theoretically sheltering ourselves against a Soviet nuclear attack. However, when only a read more

Charlottesville Virginia’s City Council voted Monday evening to adopt a resolution opposing war on Iran and urging passage by Congress of Senator Tim Kaine’s privileged resolution.

The City Council re-affirmed the position it had taken in 2012 in passing a resolution against war on Iran.

The latest threat of war on Iran  is particularly Trumpian, but it has also been in the works for decades. Many in the U.S. government have wanted to attack Iran since 1979, and the Shah’s son has been waiting read more

I had a great conversation this morning on KPFK with Harvey Wasserman and Alan Minsky on Connect the Dots, Lila Garrett’s show. You can listen here.