I wish I were joking, even a little. Malcolm Gladwell’s book, The Bomber Mafia, maintains that Haywood Hansell was essentially Jesus tempted by the Devil when he refused to burn Japanese cities to the ground. Hansell was replaced, and Curtis LeMay put in charge of U.S. bombings of Japan during WWII. LeMay, Gladwell tells us, was none other than Satan. But what was very much needed, Gladwell claims, was Satanic immorality — the willingness to intentionally incinerate perhaps a million
Speaking Truth to Empire
“Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 independently owned and locally operated since 1975 in Fresno, Dan Yaseen interviews Ray McGovern. Ray was a CIA analyst for 27 years, from the administration of John F. Kennedy to that of George H. W. Bush. Ray’s duties included chairing National Intelligence Estimates and preparing the President’s Daily Brief. In January 2003, Ray co-
created Veteran Intelligence Professionals for Sanity (VIPS) to expose how intelligence was being falsified to “justify”
Tomgram: Robert Lipsyte, The Athlete of the Century?
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
I’ve always had a complicated relationship with tennis and here’s why. In the late 1950s, when I was in my early teens, my father insisted that I get a pass to the New York City public tennis courts and learn how to play. Let’s just say that it was not my game. I’m no speed demon and serving into the sun… well, I thought it was hell. I just wasn’t (and it was clear
An Online Course on War and The Environment: Spreading Knowledge Builds Power
By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, May 26, 2021
Here’s a video from one of the facilitators lined up for World BEYOND War’s online course on War and the Environment which begins on June 7th, 2021:
This course could not be more important. A culture of extraction and destruction is closely tied to a culture of war. Questioning that ethos of destruction and consumption is challenging, but it has belatedly begun. Challenging a culture of militarism is even harder.
In the United States, for
Tomgram: William Hartung, Selling Death
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
Think about this: on Saturday, May 12th, with barely an hour’s notice, Israel took out the al-Jalaa Tower, a high-rise building in Gaza City that housed the Associated Press, al-Jazeera, and other media outlets. That act of destruction, among so many others, caused shock globally and protests not just by
Talk World Radio: Nora Barrows-Friedman on Palestine and Activism
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 talking about activism on behalf of the basic human rights of Palestinians. Our guest is Nora Barrows-Friedman. Nora Barrows-Friedman is an associate editor at The Electronic Intifada and the author of In Our Power: US Students Organize for Justice in Palestine. She is also the co-host of The Electronic Intifada Podcast,
Tomgram: Andrea Mazzarino, A Pandemic of Sexual Assault in the Military?
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
From the dawn of recorded history, humans have been making war and rape has been part of it.
In ancient Greece, the rape of a woman was considered a property crime; that is, a crime against her father, husband, or master. But in war, rape was
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
Roof Knocking in Gaza and the Myth of the Benevolent Drone
May 20, 2021
In its deadly attacks in densely populated Gaza, the Israeli Defense Force is employing a technique they call “roof knocking.” First drones fire small missiles without warheads on a residential building, intended only to shake the building before armed missiles destroy it minutes later. The IDF calls these “warning shots” and they are often preceded by telephone calls to some residents telling them to flee from the impending obliteration of their homes.
The Jerusalem Post
Tomgram: Michael Klare, Will There Be Resource Wars in a Renewable Future?
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
These days in Washington, it’s competition with and hostility to China all the way to the bank. The political class in Congress and the Biden White House, as