As U.S. college students―and their families―know all too well, the cost of a higher education in the United States has skyrocketed in recent decades. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, between 2008 and 2017 the average cost of attending a four-year public college, adjusted for inflation, increased in every state in the nation.
Anyone who’d rather not be shot should read this book
Thom Hartmann has long written and spoken on the topic of guns in the United States, along with many other topics. Of those topics he’s dealt with that I know anything about, I have not always agreed with him on every detail, but on most I’ve found him highly informative and persuasive. His new book, The Hidden History of Guns and the Second Amendment, is possibly the best book I’ve ever seen on its topic, both to read, and to pass along to anyone in the United States, whatever
What is it about dandelions?: Americans’ Extinction Denial Syndrome
By Dave Lindorff
I was talking yesterday with a woman at HealthGuard, a water testing firm we’ve used in the past to test the water in our artesian well for contaminants. We hadn’t done it in five years because the last test showed it to be free of anything nasty, from coliform bacteria to pesticide traces and heavy metals — so pure in fact we could bottle it and sell it.
We decided to test the well again because although we live on 2.3 wooded acres and don’t use
New TCBH! poem: The most dangerous country
Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, Of Crimes and Pardons
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
How about a little round of Auld Lang Syne? After all, when it comes to war crimes, whatever he ends up doing, Donald Trump will still be a johnny-come-lately. Remember, for instance, that top officials in the administration of George W. Bush, including Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, reportedly
Tomgram: William Astore, The Dark Side of Air Power
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
In those pre-seat-belt years — it might have been 1953 — I can remember being in the back seat of the family car with our dog. My dad was driving, my mom sitting next to him. And I can still practically hear them launching, with remarkable gusto, into the first verse of the Air Force song:
“Off we go into the wild blue yonder,
Climbing high into the sun.
Updated Data: Mass Shooters Still Disproportionately Veterans
Mother Jones magazine has updated its database of U.S. mass shootings. I’ve downloaded it and made a few changes, before posting it here.
The main change I’ve made has been to add a column indicating whether the shooter was a U.S. military veteran. I’ve also deleted some of the shooting incidents, reducing the list from 111 to 97 shootings. I’ve done this, just as I had done previously, in order to
Charlottesville Divests from Weapons and Fossil Fuels
World BEYOND War — June 3, 2019
On the evening of June 3, 2019, the City Council of Charlottesville, Va., voted to divest the funds in its operating budget from weapons dealers and fossil fuel producers. Here’s the resolution as passed by the City Council: PDF. The city has also committed to taking the same step with its retirement fund by this coming autumn.
The proposal to do this was brought to the city in March by a coalition of groups called Divest Cville, which attended and spoke at city
Tomgram: Michael Klare, Fighting the Next War, Not the Last
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
We’re plunged into a world in which yesterday’s strangeness is instantly overwhelmed by today’s, which, in turn, is guaranteed to be overshadowed by tomorrow’s. Our president regularly regales his infamous base while mocking his enemies in ways that, not long ago, would have been presidentially inconceivable. It’s a world in which he recently flew to Japan and presented
Can World War II Say Me Too?
No matter how many times one presents the facts to people at real-world events, or through online media, progressive radio, and non-US television networks, there is simply no stopping virtually everyone in the United States believing the most ludicrous myths about World War II.
So, my new scheme for debunking is a Me Too one. Not that I mind promoting the Me Too movement. I think it’s a very welcome development in U.S. culture. I don’t, of course, have any use for the truly ridiculous position