Let's Try Democracy

Incoming Republican House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has threatened to kick Congresswoman Ilhan Omar off the House Foreign Affairs Committee, with the excuse that she’s “anti-Semitic” and “anti-American.” Of course, these charges are false, but they are dangerous, and sufficient reason in themselves to stand up for Ilhan Omar on this.

But there are other reasons to keep the Congresswoman on that committee (and they may secretly be reasons that McCarthy wants her off). read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 21, 2022

Here’s a video of John Oliver denouncing FIFA for putting the World Cup in Qatar, a place that uses slavery and abuses women and abuses LGBT people. It’s a video about how everyone else glosses over nasty truths. Oliver drags in Russia as a past World Cup host that abuses protesters, and even Saudi Arabia as a possible host in the distant read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 15, 2022

The one nation on Earth that has not ratified the Convention on the Rights of the Child, the leading hold-out on basic human rights treaties in general, and the wealthy nation that imposes the biggest hurdles on young people seeking an education has a reason that’s seldom talked about for making college expensive and keeping the chains of student debt wrapped tightly around millions of ankles — and it’s a reason related to read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 14, 2022

For years we’ve been screaming at the tops of our lungs the story of the people of Montenegro putting their bodies on the line to save their mountain plateaux from the creation of a military training ground for NATO. (Sign the petition.)

Finally, we’re seeing the story in a few media outlets.

La Repubblica: In Montenegro la resistenza dei pastori al campo Nato

Reporterre: read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, Armistice Day, 2022

On Thursday, I caught up with representatives of MerchantsOfDeath.org who are planning a war crimes tribunal next year. They were delivering subpoenas to Washington, D.C.-area offices of Lockheed Martin, Boeing, Raytheon, and General Atomics.

I missed the Lockheed stop but am told they were not very welcoming. I’m reminded of the last time I visited read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 9, 2022

Remarks from this webinar.

Sometimes just for fun I try to figure out what I’m supposed to believe. I’m definitely supposed to believe that I can choose what to believe based on what pleases me. But I’m also supposed to believe that I have a duty to believe the right things. I think I’m supposed to believe the following: The greatest danger in the world is the wrong political party in the nation I live in. The second greatest threat to read more

“Why, sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” —Lewis Carroll

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, November 9, 2022

It’s supposed to not exist. An alternative to mass killing.

In cases that call for war, other options cannot be considered. Otherwise, how would one justify wars?

So, how can it be that I’ve listed below 89 times that people were simply forced to choose war or to “Do Nothing,” and they chose something else entirely?

read more