Tomgram: Engelhardt, The Great, Great Fall

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

Fourth World
Or American Carnage From a Pandemic President
By Tom Engelhardt

The year was 1991 and the United States was suddenly the globe’s lone superpower, its ultimate hyperpower, the last and greatest of its kind, the soon-to-be-indispensable nation. The only one left — alone, utterly alone and triumphant atop the world.

Who could have asked for more? Or better? read more

Kevin Zeese: Irreplaceable

Kevin Zeese was a major constant reliable presence in the movement for peace and justice. He used writing, editing, online and all other forms of communication. He organized events, protests, occupations. He risked arrest. He ran for office. He was an attorney and used the courts and shared his expertise. He thought independently. He acted collaboratively. He maintained good relations with those he disagreed with — even those he disagreed with over that most disagreeable of topics in a collapsing read more

Commander-in-Chief Bonespur waddles into a new controversy: Prez Dishonors Troops but Correctly Labels 2 Major Wars Unjustified or ‘Stupid’

By Dave Lindorff

Let’s be honest about America’s wars and the men and women who have fought them.

Most of the wars that the US has launched or fought in, dating back to at least the War of 1812, were not just or necessary, could have been avoided, and wasted precious lives and national wealth, often while slaughtering the people of weaker nations.

In the latest scandal precipitated by Commander in Chief Donald Trump — a man who notoriously got a doctor to lie read more

Both Dangerous: Trump and Jeffrey Goldberg

If we were to look beyond words to actions, there would be no doubt that virtually all U.S. politicians have, in effect, taken the Trump/Kissinger view of U.S. troops for as long as there have been U.S. troops.

“Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” –Donald Trump, according to Jeffrey Goldberg.

“Military men are just dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns in foreign policy.” — Henry Kissinger, according to Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

It we were to let the read more

Trump could singlehanded kill the program: Social Security in the Crosshairs

By Dave Lindorff

Could President Donald Trump destroy Social Security, the New Deal retirement program that for 85 years has provided critical support to old or disabled Americans — currently numbering 65 million?

At first blush, the idea that a president could singlehandedly destroy a program that was founded in 1936 by Franklin Delano Roosevelt, that has since then for 85 years had the solid backing of Congress, and that polls have consistently ranked as the most read more

American Workers Have Been Given a Raw Deal

Although Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that American workers are “thriving” during his presidency, this contention rings hollow.  The mishandled coronavirus pandemic, of course, has created levels of unemployment, hunger, and misery in the United States not seen since the Great Depression.  But even in the years before the pandemic, when Trump claimed he had created “the greatest economy in history,” that economy left American workers far behind.

During pre-pandemic years, the labor read more

I Will Not Be Part of Harming Any Child

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, August 31, 2020

I highly recommend watching this video:

A Promise to Our Children

I will not be a part of the killing of any child no matter how lofty the reason.
Not my neighbor’s child. Not my child. Not the enemy’s child.
Not by bomb. Not by bullet. Not by looking the other way.
I will be the power that is peace.

The above video and promise are from a group called Fields of Peace that is highlighting one of the least welcome facts on earth. Since World War read more

If Social Security matters to you, can you trust Trump? Older Voters, especially Republicans, Need to Think Before They Vote

By Dave Lindorff

In 2016, exit polls show that Donald Trump won the over-50 vote by a big margin. With voters over the age of 50 accounting for 45% of voters that year, Trump, according to  a study by AARP was the choice of 55% of that demographic, compared to 44% who voted for Hillary Clinton.  Trump’s margin was even higher in the three key “swing” states — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin —  that went narrowly for Trump to give him the win read more

Tomgram: Erin Thompson, Breaking the Bronze Ceiling

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

He was in more of a rush than you could have imagined. He was obviously far too monumental a figure to wait until he was dead. After all, he would look so damn good as the fifth face on Mt. Rushmore, where he recently gave a July 4th speech backed by fireworks and introduced by Kristi Noem, the Republican governor of South Dakota. According read more