Restoring the Threat of Impeachment for Future Office Holders

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

Pence now calling shots when it comes to the Pentagon Has Trump already been Removed as Commander in Chief?

By Dave Lindorff

Little noticed during yesterday’s bizarre storming of the Capitol building by armed and violent Trump-incited American “brownshirts,” was the fact that National Guard troops, called for by Washington’s mayor, but not authorized by President Trump, were finally authorized by Vice President Pence. 

The significance of this chain of authority cannot be understated.

The control of the US military is one of the, if not the greatest power of read more

Talk Nation Radio: Jodie Evans: China is not our enemy

This week on Talk Nation Radio: U.S.-China relations. Our guest is Jodie Evans. She is co-founder of CODEPINK, which works to stop U.S. Military interventions overseas, and promotes diplomatic solutions and divestiture from war. She served in the administration of Governor Jerry Brown and ran his presidential campaigns. She has published two books, Stop the Next War Now and Twilight of Empire, and produced several documentary films, including the Oscar and Emmy-nominated “The read more

Tomgram: Engelhardt, An Overheated, Underwhelming World

Saying Goodbye to the Con-Man-in-Chief

Demining America After The Donald

By

2021 has indeed begun and god knows what it has in store for us.  But unless, somehow, we’re surprised beyond imagining, The Donald is indeed going to leave the White House soon and, much as I hate to admit it, in some strange fashion we’re going to miss him.  Of course, it will be beyond a great relief to see his… well, let’s just say him in the rearview mirror.  While occupying the White House, he was, read more

A Treaty to Ban the Political Use of Religion

As we get ready to celebrate the treaty banning nuclear weapons becoming law in over 50 countries (with hopefully many more to soon be added), another effort to create a global treaty is getting started. This one would ban the political use of religion. Or rather, it would ban the malevolent political use of religion. To be specific, here is part of the draft text (which I imagine may evolve a bit as the process develops):

Article 1
Equality in Respect and Dignity
Each read more

Top 10 Questions for Antony Blinken

Before Antony Blinken can become Secretary of State, Senators must approve. And before that, they must ask questions. Here are some suggestions for what they should ask.

1. Second to the war on Iraq, which of the disasters you’ve helped facilitate do you most regret, Libya, Syria, Ukraine, or something else? And what have you learned that would improve your record going forward?

2. You once supported dividing Iraq into three nations. I’ve asked an Iraqi friend to draw up a plan read more

Top 10 Questions for Avril Haines

Before Avril Haines can become Director of National Intelligence, Senators must approve. And before that, they must ask questions. Here are some suggestions for what they should ask.

1. What are the most extreme measures that should be considered in extreme situations to protect open democratic government?

2. Would those, excuse me, would, reclaiming my time, would those measures not be more extreme than refusing to confirm for high office someone like yourself who opposes open read more

Top 10 Questions for Neera Tanden

Before Neera Tanden can become Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Senators must approve. And before that, they must ask questions. Here are some suggestions for what they should ask.

1. You supported an attack on Libya that proved fraudulently marketed, illegal, and catastrophic in results, after which you argued in an email to your colleagues for trying to force Libya to pay via oil profits read more

Drone Murder Has Been Normalized

If I search on Google for the words “drones” and “morality” most of the results are from 2012 through 2016. If I search for “drones” and “ethics” I get a bunch of articles from 2017 to 2020. Reading the various websites confirms the obvious hypothesis that (as a rule, with plenty of exceptions) “morality” is what people mention when an evil read more