Tomgram: Rory Fanning, The Courage to Say No

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

She began cutting school on Fridays and simply sitting on the steps of the Swedish parliament. Her name was Greta Thunberg. She was 15 years old, with a mind of her own and a sign demanding a school strike against climate change. Her parents wanted her to go back to school, but Friday after read more

U.S. Exports More and More Bullets

By David Swanson, Director of World BEYOND War

When I was a kid there was a local basketball team called the Washington Bullets. The team changed its name when “bullets” became offensive due to the high rate of gun murders in Washington, D.C. This is the same city that to this day has a football team called the Washington Redskins. What offends is not, perhaps, violence, but violence directed at people who matter. (Compare: tens of thousands of Yemenis vs. one Washington Post reporter.)

The read more

U.S. Sale of War Planes to New Zealand Faces Popular Resistance in U.S. and New Zealand

By David Swanson, Director of World BEYOND War

The U.S. State Department uses public funds and public employees to market private products designed for mass killing to foreign governments. Few corporations have benefitted more from this socialism for the oligarchs than Boeing. In one recent example, the U.S. government has persuaded the New Zealand government to buy four “Poseidon” planes from Boeing that are designed for working with submarines, of which New Zealand possesses zero.

The purchase read more

Drop appeal of order for PA Supreme Court rehearing: 6700-Name Petition Delivered to Philly DA Krasner Calling for Fair Appeal for Mumia

By Dave Lindorff

The organization Roots Action has delivered a petition signed by 6700 people from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, across the country and around the world,  to Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner, demanding that Mumia Abu-Jamal be allowed to re-argue his original appeal of his conviction to the state’s highest court.

The petition, which can still have names added, states:

Dear District Attorney Krasner:

As you know, respected read more

Speaking Truth to Empire on Venezuela

On Speaking Truth to Empire, on KFCF 88.1 FM independently owned and locally operated in Fresno since 1975, Dan Yaseen interviews Steve Lendman, an author, a progressive blogger and an internet radio host. They discuss US initiated coup against democratically elected Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro. He writes on vital international read more

The New York Times Is Scared of Peace

By David Swanson, Director of World BEYOND War

The New York Times and the people it gives voice to are very worried that Donald Trump may be too much in favor of peace in Korea, more in favor of peace than of disarming North Korea prior to peace — a sure recipe, of course, for never arriving at peace.

North Korea has disarmed in the past when there were real steps toward peace from both sides.

North Korea is no threat to the United States — the actual United States, not its mission of global read more

Bernie’s back, but is he all in this time? Could Sanders 2.0 Win It All, Getting the Democratic Nomination and Defeating Trump?

By Dave Lindorff

Listening to Sen. Bernie Sanders’ videoed announcement of his candidacy for the Democratic Party’s 2020 presidential nomination, I was struck by how much has changed since 2016, and how little.

Sanders, recall, ran a spirited primary campaign against Hillary Clinton, a campaign that was undermined by crooked dealing, dirty tricks and sabotage by the Hillary campaign and by the Democratic National Committee, all of which effectively read more

Tomgram: Stephanie Savell, U.S. Counterterror Missions Across the Planet

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

“Training.” It sounds so innocuous. It also sounds like something expected of a military. All professional soldiers undergo some sort of basic training. Think: calisthenics, negotiating obstacle courses, and marksmanship. Soldiers require instruction, otherwise they’re little more than rabble.

Sometimes soldiers from one country even train the troops of another, imparting read more