Tomgram: Karen Greenberg, Retiring the Statue of Liberty

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

I remember him (barely) as a thin, bald, little old man with a white mustache and a cane. As I write this, I’m looking at a photo of him in 1947, holding the hand of little Tommy Engelhardt who had just turned three that very July day. They’re on a street somewhere in Brooklyn, New York, Tommy in shorts and a T-shirt and his grandfather, Moore (that wasn’t his original read more

Five Benefits of Life Without NATO

This week, war industry employee Hans Binnendijk claimed in the weapons-advertisement conveyance Defense News that we all get five big benefits from NATO:

1) Russia refrains from seizing Eastern Europe.
2) The United States gets to have bases in Europe from which to attack the Middle East, and gets to trade stuff with Europe.
3) Europe’s militaries are united into one big happy military.
4) Asian countries refrain from cooperating with each other.
5) The world is at peace read more

How Not to Go to War

By David Swanson, Director, World BEYOND War

If you saw a book in Barnes and Noble called “How Not to Go to War,” wouldn’t you assume it was a guide to the proper equipment every good warrior should have when they head off to do a little killing, or perhaps something like this U.S. news article on “How Not to Go to War Against ISIS” which is all about what law you should pretend authorizes a violation of the UN Charter and the Kellogg-Briand Pact?

In fact, the new book, How Not to read more

What happens when a treaty that’s working is cancelled: The Insanity of a New Hypersonic Nuclear Cruise Missile Arms Race

By Dave Lindorff

The Bush, Obama and Trump administration have broken two very important promises, or treaties, with Russia and it’s going to be very costly and dangerous for us and for the world thanks to them.

The first broken promise was the decision by President George W. Bush to ignore the documented promise made by President Reagan to Russian President Mikhail Gorbachev that if read more

UVA Finally Pays a Living Wage

I think we can tentatively draw a few possible, and all of them encouraging, conclusions from the fact that the University of Virginia has announced a $15 per hour minimum wage for its direct employees.

One is this: actions you take can bear fruit later. When many of us demanded an $8 living wage back in the 1990s, the University dragged its feet. Local governments and businesses did move to $8/hour. And distant governments and other universities began adopting living wage standards. Activist groups read more

Tomgram: Allegra Harpootlian, The School Shooters of the Planet

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

Here’s something that should still stun anyone, but has had no discernible impact in this country. Between December 29, 2001, when B-52 and B-1B bombers killed more than 100 revelers in a village in Paktia Province, Afghanistan, and December 2013, when a drone slaughtered perhaps 15 read more

West Point Tries to Defend the Idea of a Just War

Villanova University is hosting a West Point Military Academy-supported event about “Just War” theory.

The professor who teaches “ethics” at West Point last year lost two debates on the topic of whether war can ever be justified. Videos: one, two. I admit to being biased, as I was the one debating him, but the first event polled people at the start and finish and found that read more