War Is A Crime

As the Christmas season approaches, it’s important to be aware of the power we hold in how we spend our money.

As consumers, we invest in products we believe will serve us best. Companies may try to hide information about their products but eventually the truth comes out. Consumer advocacy is powerful in a free-market economy and we’ve all benefited.

American lawyer Ralph Nader, for example, took on the auto industry in the 1960s over the safety of their vehicles. Most buyers were unaware read more

http://troymedia.com/2017/11/02/a-spirit-of-hope-shines-through-tragedy-in-the-congo/

Civil war has been going on since the mid-1990s in the Congolese region and as many as six million people may have died in the conflict. The rape of women, children and even men is common.

The United Nations has a peacekeeping force on the ground and foreign aid workers are present.

International consumer advocacy has put pressure on companies profiting from minerals mined in the region, and countries have passed read more

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

Think of President Trump and his administration as a den of thieves. There is, of course, the obvious thievery: what they will in the end, as with the recently passed tax “reform” bill, steal from ordinary citizens and offer as never-ending presents to the already staggeringly wealthy, among them the president himself (possible read more

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

Donald Trump has, it seems, finally offered his plan for dealing with the opioid crisis in America.  He did so during his State of the Union address to Congress, filled with Republican applause (none read more

By Dave Lindorff

Days after the release of the so-called Nunes memo the Democrats are insisting on the release of their memo, which might be considered a minority rebuttal, but it’s time to take a look at the big picture. What does this whole incident say about the FBI, its power, its capacity for abuse and misconduct, and the long history of an organization that has played such a decisive and often repressive and even unconstitutional role in American politics over many, many decades. read more

 People have a wide range of reasons for opposing a military Trumparade through Washington. Here are nearly 20,000 people who say:

“We demand that the United States hold no militarism-glorifying parade displaying weaponry of war. Should such a thing be staged, we will visibly support peace on that day.”

But thousands of those petition signers have added further comments, and many others in my email box and social media have put their own twists on it. So, here’s my own personal angle:

The read more

A video has shown up on Senator Bernie Sanders’ Facebook page, with his name on it and his face in it making all the familiar (to a small number of people) points about U.S. military spending (how much it is, how it compares to the rest of the world, how it does not produce jobs, what wonders could be achieved with a small fraction of it, etc.).

I wish there were mention of the fact that it kills huge numbers of people, or that it risks apocalypse, or that it damages the earth’s environment. read more

Fred Warmbier, whose son Otto Warmbier, a student here at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, died shortly after returning from North Korea, is reportedly traveling to the Winter Olympics with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence.

It’s hard to imagine the incredible grief of losing a son and of having seen a son suffer. I would not risk being perceived as advising a father how to grieve were it not for the risk I perceive of creating tens of millions more such grieving parents.

It’s hard, read more