Talk Nation Radio: Peadar King on War, Suffering, and the Struggle for Human Rights

Peadar King is director of KMF Productions and presenter / producer of the RTÉ documentary series What in the World? We discuss his latest book, War, Suffering, and the Struggle for Human Rights.

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

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Tomgram: William Astore, America’s Forever Wars Have Come Home

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

Here’s a little portrait of the United States in June 2020, a passage from a New York Times report on the National Guard’s treatment of a recent protest march of people chanting “We can’t breathe!” in Washington, D.C.:

“A Black Hawk helicopter, followed by a smaller medical evacuation helicopter, dropped to rooftop level with its searchlights aimed at the crowd. read more

The Subversion of New York City’s Official Policy to Curb Police Brutality

In early November 1966, my sister and I―armed with a bucket of home-made paste, a wide brush, and a thick roll of “Vote No” posters―headed off from my student apartment on the Upper West Side of Manhattan to plaster the surrounding area with the signs.  The Patrolman’s Benevolent Association (PBA), a very powerful police union, had placed a referendum on the New York City ballot to remove civilians from the Civilian Complaint Review Board.

We were a very small part of  a read more

Defunding US Police is an Excellent and Workable Idea: Who needs cops for school discipline, domestic disputes, traffic control and serving warrants?

By Dave Lindorff

The new call to “defund the police departments” is a brilliant idea whose time has come.

As an activist eloquently put the case in a hearing before the Minneapolis City Council, “The police are a 19th-century creation that is inappropriate for a 21st-century society.”

Absolutely correct. As we have written on this site earlier, police forces in the US were actually created for chasing down, capturing and returning escaping slaves. Their role read more

Close to mutinous language by top US military leadership: In Astonishing Move, Both Defense Secretary Esper and Joint Chiefs Chair Milley Tell Troops to Defend Constitution and People’s Freedom, Not President

By Dave Lindorff

President Trump really went a bridge too far with his bizarre Bible photo op and his order for federal troops to attack peaceful White House protesters to allow him to exit his white house bunker and walk unimpeded across the street to a church to have his photo taken holding it up (after having it pointed out that he was holding the sacred book, hasily borrowed from the church behind him, upside down!).

In separate letters to all US troops, both Defense (sic) Secretary Mark Esper and Four-Star Gen. Mark Milley, Chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the nation’s top general, told all people in uniform that their loyalty is to the US Constitution, not to any political leader.  Milley, in his memo, added an additional note jotted in pen to stress his point further writing: We all committed our lives to the idea that is America — We will stay true to that oath and the American People.”

Here are the two letters,  both well worth reading in full. Both make it clear that the obligation of federal troops is to defend the right to free speech and peaceful assembly — a direct rebuke of President Trump’s call for violent attacks on protester and for “dominating the streets” of the nation’s cities…

For the rest of this article by DAVE LINDORFF, and copies of the two remarkable memos to US troops by the military’s two top leaders, please go to: https://thiscantbehappening.net/in-astonishing-move-both-defense-secretary-esper-and-joint-chiefs-chair-milley-tell-troops-to-defend-constitution-not-president/

 

Fascism on the march: Is Trump Using the Nation’s Capital as a Test Site for Scrapping Constitutional Government and Establishing Martial Law?

By Dave Lindorff

It’s been less than two weeks since the murder by cop of George Floyd in Minneapolis, and in that short time, an astonishing rebellion has sprung up from the angry grass roots. It began among a black population for whom this vicious videotaped slow and casual killing of a non-violent black suspect of a minor alleged crime by a calm and clearly unthreatened white police officer was the last straw.

In no time, the protests spread across the country read more