Bryant Welch’s new edition of his book, State of Confusion: Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind, purports to diagnose the mental illness that produces support for and tolerance of Donald Trump in particular, and the Republican Party in general. To some extent it does so, although it’s mostly very familiar stuff, partly excusable because the first edition came out a decade ago. Welch, by the way, deserves credit for opposing participation in torture
It’s not too early to be thinking about punishment: Making Trump and Other Climate Criminals Pay
By Dave Lindorff
Warnings from climate scientists and climate monitoring organizations are growing progressively more dire, frightening and depressing. There is new evidence that the melt rate of Greenland’s mile-thick ice cover is starting to happen
Tomgram: Nomi Prins, A World That Is the Property of the 1%
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
This year, I simply couldn’t get one fact out of my head: according to a 2017 report from the Institute for Policy Studies, three billionaires — Jeff Bezos, Warren Buffet, and Bill Gates — have amassed as much wealth as the bottom
The Abolition of War Requires New Thoughts, Words, and Actions
By David Swanson
Remarks in Albuquerque, New Mexico, December 12, 2018
Video is uploading now, at airplane internet speed, to Youtube.com/WorldBeyondWar
There’s action happening now in the U.S. Senate on ending U.S. participation in the war on Yemen. There’s a big loophole in the bill. There’s the matter of selling Saudi Arabia its weapons. There’s the House of Misrepresentatives to worry about. There’s the veto threat. There’s the question of getting compliance out of a president
Tomgram: Subhankar Banerjee, The Vanishing
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
It’s not been a good era for migrants — and no, I’m not talking about those “caravans” of desperate human beings from Central America heading for the U.S. (and the wrath of Donald J. Trump). I’m thinking about birds — shorebirds, in fact, which are surely the greatest migrants on the planet. The Hudsonian godwit, for instance, flies more than 9,000
Talk Nation Radio: Mark Colville Tells Why He Hammered and Poured Blood on Nuclear Weapons
Mark Colville is one of the seven Kings Bay Plowshares activists. We recorded this interview on December 11th 2018, and Mark planned to turn himself in hours later at the Glynn County Jail in Brunswick, Georgia. Learn more:
http://kingsbayplowshares7.org
https://www.facebook.com/Kingsbayplowshares
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.
Pacifica stations can also download from
Tomgram: Engelhardt, In the Shadow of Donald Trump
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
News From the Far Side of Nowhere
In a Crippled World, All the News That’s Fit to Splint
By Tom Engelhardt
Breaking News! — as NBC Nightly News anchor Lester Holt often puts it when beginning his evening broadcast. Here, in summary, is my view of the news that’s breaking in the United States on just about any day of the week:
Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump. Trump.
Or rather
Reviving the Nuclear Disarmament Movement: A Practical Proposal
In late November 2018, Noam Chomsky, the world-renowned public intellectual, remarked that “humanity faces two imminent existential threats: environmental catastrophe and nuclear war.”
Curiously, although a widespread environmental movement has developed to save the planet from accelerating climate change, no counterpart has emerged to take on the rising danger of nuclear disaster. Indeed, this danger―exemplified by the collapse of arms control and disarmament agreements, vast nuclear
Tomgram: Rebecca Gordon, Speed Kills
This article originally appeared at TomDispatch.com. To receive TomDispatch in your inbox three times a week, click here.
What planet do we actually live on? Start with this fact: the last four years — 2015, 2016, 2017, and (it seems a sure thing) 2018 — will be the hottest on record. And if that doesn’t seem
The Ancient Mythical Rites of Pearl Harbor Day
Last week I spoke at a high school. As I often do, I told them I’d perform a magic trick. I only know one, but I know it will almost always work with no skill required. I scribbled on a piece of paper and folded it up. I asked someone to name a war that was justified. They of course said “World War II” and I opened up the paper, which read “World War II.” Magic!
I could do a second part with equal reliability. I ask “Why?” They say “the Holocaust.”
I could do a third part, as well.