Tomgram: Nick Turse, A Disappearance, a Body, and What It Takes to Make the News
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We tend to think of them as separate and distinct wars: the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq. Yet it’s not hard to trace the ways in which America’s knee-jerk overreaction to the terrorist attack of 9/11 and the “preemptive” invasion of Iraq that followed in 2003 destabilized
People Don’t Kill People, Americans Kill People
Yes, of course, every day that Congress goes on refusing to ban guns is more blood on the steps of the U.S. Capitol. It’s immoral, disgraceful, embarrassing, and in large part a function of financial corruption. But it’s also in part a government operating within a culture of violence — albeit one that the same government plays a huge role in creating.
U.S. movies, tv shows, video games, music, news, and schools are uniquely and increasingly violent. Primates’ chief form of behavior is
Tomgram: Noam Chomsky and David Barsamian, A World in Peril
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I first “met” Noam Chomsky in 1969 by reading these words of his about the My Lai massacre:
“And now there is Song My — ‘Pinkville.’ More than two decades of indoctrination and counterrevolutionary interventions have created the possibility of a name like ‘Pinkville’ — and the acts that may be done in a place so named. Orville and Jonathan Schell
I just won a TED Talks Open Mic — here’s my 4-minute talk
On Oct 2, 2017, 20 of us gave 4-minute TED talks in Charlottesville and I won, allowing me to give a TED talk at the upcoming November 3, 2017, event at Charlottesville’s Paramount Theater. This was my 4-minute talk on “Why End War.” #TedXCville
Video by Wes Swanson.
Thank you to everyone who voted for me.
I wish all the great speakers could have won.
Focus: The GOP Tax Plan – Oct 2, 2017
VIDEO (and transcript): Schumer: GOP using ‘fake numbers’ for tax plan, completely focused on wealthy and powerful – RealClearPolitics
VIDEO (and transcript): Sanders: Republican tax plan ‘massive transfer of wealth’ to the rich – RealClearPolitics
VIDEO (and transcript): Mnuchin: No tax cuts for wealthy, benefits for middle class, $1 trillion cut in deficit – RealClearPolitics
VIDEO (and transcript): Mulvaney: Too early to judge Trump tax plan. We’re working with Congress the details – RealClearPolitics
Republican senator Rand Paul criticizes Trump tax plan, his message could signal difficulties for tax reform in the Senate – Reuters
Tax reform through the Republican-controlled Congress already faces some stumbling blocks: Bob Corker, GOP lawmakers voice debt concerns – Business Insider
Meadows: I won’t rule out raising taxes on wealthy to partially pay for tax cuts – Breitbart
What’s North Korea Afraid of?
“Peace” clubs in U.S. schools are likely to teach that a local bully is afraid and in need of help. They are much less likely to teach that about entities involved in the actual subject of peace (meaning the absence of war), such as — to take the example momentarily most prominent in U.S. propaganda — North Korea.
“Ignorance about the Korean war,” writes Blaine Harden, “has . . . led to the cartoonish ahistorical understanding many Americans still have of contemporary North Korea.
Great Hunger – by Kathy Kelly
October 3, 2017
Earlier this year, the Sisters of St. Brigid invited me to speak at their Feile Bride celebration in Kildare, Ireland. The theme of the gathering was: “Allow the Voice of the Suffering to Speak.”
The Sisters have embraced numerous projects to protect the environment, welcome refugees and nonviolently resist wars. I felt grateful to reconnect with people who so vigorously opposed any Irish support for U.S. military wars in Iraq. They had also campaigned to end the economic
The World Is Banning Nuclear Weapons — Can Trumpland Join the World?
Scientists tell us that a single nuclear weapon could cause devastating climate change.
Donald Trump tells us . . . well, a bunch of incoherent gibberish that seems to include the illegal threat to use nuclear weapons if he should be in the mood to commit genocide in North Korea.
Meanwhile 122 countries have creates a treaty to ban the possession of nuclear weapons, and 53 have already signed it, these 53:
Compare that map with the map of countries that own nuclear weapons:
Israel may be too small
A Call for Congress to Act
We now have a nuclear North Korea. Those in the know all agree that any attempt at “surgical strike” to eliminate their nuclear capability will result first in the annihilation of Seoul’s 10 million people and followed shortly by devastation in Japan and the rest of South Korea. And even so will not eliminate their nuclear capacity. And a “decapitation strike” to eliminate the Kim Jong Un leadership will have the same results. These are not a sensible choices.
So what