Category: Uncategorized

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 21, 2024

Remarks via zoom to conference in St. Petersburg, Russia, on September 21, 2024.

It’s wonderful to be joining you even virtually in St. Petersburg, which I am informed is even more beautiful than Moscow, which I was fortunate enough to visit seven years ago — Moscow is a wonderful city 20 times the size of Washington, D.C. Just the long hours of sunlight were amazing to me. I met a lot of wonderful people when I was there. I didn’t agree read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, September 20, 2024

Yes, I’m going to say this again. I’ve heard not the slightest hint of a refutation or objection to it, and yet so many, many people ignore it.

For the love of all that is decent, immediately stop the self-defeating idiocy of calling every goddamned war “not a war.”

Please. With all due respect.

“It’s not a war. It’s terrorism.” “It’s not a war. It’s genocide.” “It’s not a war. It’s an occupation.” “It’s not read more

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

Here’s a strange connection between Israel and the United States. Let me put it to you as a kind of quiz: Which two leaders on this planet have, at least in part, organized their political lives to avoid trial convictions and/or possible jail time? Yes, in case you hadn’t guessed, I’m thinking of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the former American president read more

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

Once upon a time, there was something thrilling in record-breaking events like Babe Ruth’s 60th home run of the 1927 season. But today, maybe not. After all, we’ve just lived through the read more

This is the September 18 show published early.

AUDIO:

Talk World Radio is recorded on Zoom.

Here is this week’s video and all the videos on Youtube.

The great portraitist Robert Shetterly has a new collection out in a book titled Portraits of Peacemakers: Americans Who Tell the Truth.

I recommend getting a copy for every person you know who enjoys art or history or activism or who is concerned by the mass killing of war.

I don’t think I’m biased by the honor I feel at having my portrait included in a collection of such wonderful people. I may be biased by my interest in advancing the cause of peace — but outside of corporate read more

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

I was born on July 20, 1944, in the midst of the Second World War. Barely a year later, the U.S. ended that conflict in the Pacific by dropping atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and creating two all-too-literal hells on Earth.

To this day, fortunately, no other nuclear weapons have ever been used (if, that is, you don’t count all the ones tested, read more

One of the most impressive things about U.S. elections always appears to be the way in which the 96% of humanity outside of the United States consents to doing nothing at all for the better part of a year, so that U.S. media outlets can focus fulltime on the election. Of course, it could be that this, like much else in U.S. elections, is a bit of an illusion.

The highlights of the recent debate would seem to be, from the discussion that has followed:

1. an aging fascist buffoon falsely claiming that a group of people he’s demonizing wants to eat your pets — the wrong kind of animals, you should be serving the livestock industry that is helping render the Earth uninhabitable — and
2. the same racist nitwit fumbling around about having “concepts of a plan” for healthcare — but please pay no attention to the healthcare solution long since found by every other wealthy nation on the planet and shunned by both major political cartels in Washington.

And yet, the most significant bit of the debate read more

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

When is it my turn to retire? That question represents both a distinct kind of horror and a certain luxury. Yes, one day you can simply stop and, even if you’re lucky enough not to be in instant need, as aging TomDispatch regular Rebecca Gordon vividly reminds us today (says 80-year-old read more

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

Keep in mind that the man who first made his reputation — The Apprentice aside — and his fortune as a real estate developer has remarkably few plans to develop anything (housing included) that would help most Americans. Count on one thing, though: he’ll read more