War Is A Crime

If you can do activism, do it around policies in a principled manner, and steer clear of elections.

If you can do funding, fund principled activist organizations, not political candidates.

If you must divert your energies and money into elections, I have a recommendation for how best to do it (not that you’ll necessarily listen to me, having already ignored my first two paragraphs, but what the heck):

Part of getting better governance out of Washington, D.C., will have to come from shifting power read more

Jake Johnston is a Senior Research Associate at the Center for Economic and Policy Research in Washington, D.C. His research has focused predominantly on economic policy in Latin America, the International Monetary Fund, and U.S. foreign policy. Jake Johnston co-authored a report in March on the role of the Organization of American States in the coup in Bolivia in November of last year. The New York Times has recently admitted that OAS claims of fraud in last year’s Bolivian election read more

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

There was only one time in my life when I might actually have been jealous of Donald Trump. That’s when — as TomDispatch jock culture correspondent Robert Lipsyte, author of read more

Here’s the text of a new bill in Congress: PDF.

Here’s a petition from Code Pink promoting it.

Needless to say, this is the best bill introduced into Congress in decades.

Here’s the ending:

“Congress supports moves to reduce the priority given to war in our foreign policy and our current war-based national economy by using significant cuts, up to $350,000,000,000 as detailed above, from current budget plans, while using the funds to increase our diplomatic capacity and for domestic programs read more

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

I’m almost 76 years old, in Covid-19 isolation, and — though I’ve been to many demonstrations in my life — haven’t been to one since George Floyd was murdered. I haven’t even been near one and that will, I suspect, be one of the regrets of my life. Thank goodness Nick Turse, TomDispatch’s managing read more

Almost 500 people, most of them from Charlottesville have signed this petition:

We urge you to ban from Charlottesville:

(1) military-style or “warrior” training of police by the U.S. military, any foreign military or police, or any private company,

(2) acquisition by police of any weaponry from the U.S. military;

and to require enhanced training and stronger policies for conflict de-escalation, and limited use of force for law enforcement.

 The CBS 19 coverage is here.

The NBC 29 coverage is read more

Senator Bernie Sanders has finally done something that some of us thought would give his presidential campaign a big boost four years ago, and again this past year. He’s proposed to introduce legislation to move a significant amount of money from militarism to human and environmental needs (or at least human needs; the details aren’t clear, but moving money out of militarism is an environmental need).

Better late than never! Let’s make it happen with an overwhelming show of public support! read more

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

In the grimmest sense imaginable, this has already been an action-packed year.

Try, in fact, to imagine a summary of this moment in historical terms: Right now, in June 2020, we’re experiencing a version of the 1918 “Spanish flu” pandemic; an instant rerun of the Great read more

Over 200 people have quickly signed a new petition in Charlottesville, Va. at http://bit.ly/cvillepeace

Almost all of the signers are from Charlottesville.

The petition is addressed to the Charlottesville City Council and reads:

We urge you to ban from Charlottesville:
(1) military-style or “warrior” training of police by the U.S. military, any foreign military or police, or any private company,
(2) acquisition by police of any weaponry from the U.S. military;
and read more