War Is A Crime

Daniel Ellsberg’s new book is The Doomsday Machine: Confessions of a Nuclear War Planner. I’ve known the author for years, I’m prouder than ever to say. We have done speaking events and media interviews together. We’ve been arrested together protesting wars. We’ve publicly debated electoral politics. We’ve privately debated the justness of World War II. (Dan approves of U.S. entry into World War II, and it seems into the war on Korea as well, though he has nothing but condemnation read more

Although the U.S. peace movement has been on the wane for about a decade, it remains a viable force in American life.  Organizations like Peace Action, the American Friends Service Committee, Physicians for Social Responsibility, the Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jewish read more

By Dave Lindorff

            Now that it looks like the President Trump and the Republican Congress will succeed in ramming through the most regressive tax bill (not “reform” bill as the media keep slipping into calling it) in the history of the income tax, it’s time to gear up for the real battle — a battle that calls for not  more lame Soros-funded, Democratic Party-led “resistance,” but rather a deadly serious mass movement to read more

When I was teaching myself how to write, when I was about 20 to 25, I churned out (and threw out) all kinds of autobiographies. I wrote glorified diaries. I fictionalized my friends and acquaintances. I still write columns all the time in the first person. I did write a children’s book in recent years that was fiction but included my oldest son and my niece and nephew as characters. But I haven’t touched autobiography in more years than I’d been alive when I used to engage in it.

I’ve been read more

We’re supposed to think that the United States is threatened for no reason by irrational subhuman monsters arising out of the less important bits of the earth found beyond U.S. borders.

We’re supposed to think that the bigger the U.S. military is, and the more places it’s based in around the world, the better it can counter those monsters.

We’re supposed to think that other nations don’t have this sort of problem or depend on this sort of solution because the United States does it for read more

SHIP’S LOG, February 15, 2018 — How the Earthlings have survived is a mystery. Ever since the United States impeached and removed Donald Trump for accidentally live-streaming himself sexually assaulting a tourist (or was it really for refusing to bomb Moscow? unclear) events have spiraled out of control.

Trump is now residing on a private island, making offers by tweet of trillions of dollars to various nations in exchange for their willingness to bomb the United States. No nation is known read more

The Stop the War Coalition has just published a short summary of what’s wrong with foreign policy, going through a partial list of current wars one by one. Of course this is a British organization with a British perspective, but it’s the closest thing to what a well-funded U.S. anti-war organization might produce, and it ought to be considered by people everywhere, as it impacts us all.

I confess that I have throughout the terror-producing “war on terror” envied and identified with the read more

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

If you want a gauge of the state of America, the country that put billionaire Donald Trump in the White House, consider this: the three richest Americans — Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos, and Warren Buffett — now have the wealth of the bottom read more

Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report: Senate tax plan would increase deficit by $1.4T over 10 years – CNNPolitics

Report: Congressional Budget Office cost estimate of the of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – cbo.gov

Trump’s tax bill faces opposition by two Republican lawmakers who could prevent the legislation from reaching the Senate floor, Corker wants to add a backstop measure to prevent tax cuts from ballooning the deficit – Reuters

GOP senator Lankford seeking back-up revenue plan on taxes to secure his vote – CNNPolitics

Republican deficit hawks could be the real barrier to passing tax reform – Vox

How can Congress pass a tax bill that increases the deficit? Lawmakers have many ways to get around their own rules on fiscal discipline – MarketWatch

Experts are battling over Republicans’ tax bill, economic growth and federal tax revenues – Business Insider

Tax reform’s growth: A balm for deficit worries – U.S. Chamber of Commerce

The Wall Street Journal editorial: Tax reform, growth and the deficit – whitehouse.gov

How read more

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

Consider the latest news from America’s war zones, still spreading across the Greater Middle East and Africa.  The U.S. military is now reportedly building up its troop strength (mostly Special Operations forces) in Somalia. Their number has already doubled, read more