Will the Coronavirus Pandemic Help Curb War and Militarism?

Decades ago, when I began teaching international history, I used to ask students if they thought it was possible for nations to end their fighting of wars against one another.  Their responses varied.  But the more pessimistic conclusions were sometimes tempered by the contention that, if the world’s nations faced a common foe, such as an invasion from another planet, this would finally pull them together.

I was reminded of this on March 23, when the UN Secretary-General, António read more

Another Sanders betrayal: Sanders Supporter Asks Why Didn’t Sanders Carry on the Fight to the End?

By Laurie Dobson

As people come to grips with the announcement today that Bernie Sanders has suspended, i.e. dropped out of, his campaign, a myriad of collective feelings will have to run their inevitable course.

My first reactions are that I feel profoundly let down. In the middle of Holy Week, for God’s sake! While the virus is peaking and people are losing things right and left, how does it help that he does this now?

Bernie has always had terrible timing, a consequence read more

The International Criminal Court for Africans and the Dream of Justice

The film “Prosecutor,” tells the story of the International Criminal Court, with a focus on its first chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, with lots of footage of him in the year 2009. He held that office from 2003 to 2012.

The film opens with the Prosecutor helicoptering into an African village to inform the people that the ICC is bringing its form of justice to locations all over the world, not just their village. But, of course, we all know it isn’t true, and we know now that even in read more

Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, A Victory Parade in the Coronavirus Moment

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

Think of Donald Trump as a revolutionary when it comes to the alphabet. How many presidents have spent so much time on the basic ABCs the way he has? After all, since the moment he arrived at the White House, he’s been laser-focused on eliminating four letters in any association whatsoever from that alphabet. You know which four they are — A-B-O-M — which, curiously read more

Talk Nation Radio: David Dayen on Systems Failing in a Time of Coronavirus

David Dayen is the executive editor of The American Prospect magazine. He is the author of Chain of Title: How Three Ordinary Americans Uncovered Wall Street’s Great Foreclosure Fraud, winner of the Studs and Ida Terkel Prize. His next book, Monopolized: Life in the Age of Corporate Power, will be released in June. His work has also appeared in The Nation, The Intercept, The New Republic, Vice, HuffPost, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, read more

The Coronavirus Pandemic, Like Other Global Catastrophes, Reveals the Limitations of Nationalism

We live with a profound paradox.  Our lives are powerfully affected by worldwide economic, communications, transportation, food supply, and entertainment systems.  Yet we continue an outdated faith in the nation-state, with all the divisiveness, competition, and helplessness that faith produces when dealing with planetary problems.

As we have seen in recent weeks, the coronavirus, like other diseases, does not respect national boundaries, but spreads easily around the world.  And how is it being read more

A Tale of Two Stockpiles

Remembering Martin Luther King, Jr. on the Anniversary of his Murder in a Pandemic Year

April 4, 2020

The United States Strategic National Stockpile of essential medical supplies maintained by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, seems unable to respond to the present COVID-19 crisis.  There is much discussion in today’s news about who is responsible for the shortcomings. Did Trump find the shelves empty or full when he took office after President Obama? Is the stockpile meant to read more