Author name: davidswanson

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 28, 2021

Thom Hartmann has written an enormous number of great books, and the latest is no exception. It’s called The Hidden History of Big Brother in America: How the Death of Privacy and the Rise of Surveillance Threaten Us and Our Democracy. Thom is not the least bit xenophobic, paranoid, or war-inclined. He dishes out criticism — most of it clearly well-merited — to numerous governments including the one in Washington, D.C. Yet I think read more

An artist in Pakistan attempted to make U.S. drone pilots face the fact that they were killing children.

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 21, 2021

Former President Barack Obama recently tweeted that the day of a school shooting was the worst day of his presidency. Well, it certainly shouldn’t have been a good day, but, seriously, what the filibuster? Was it a bad day because children were killed and he didn’t order their killing?

It’s bad enough having a drone murder program, but read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 18, 2021

Most U.S. states still have excuses when asked to make voter registration automatic, but in various states — including here in Virginia — draft registration is automatic even for 15-year-olds who want a learner’s permit to drive a car. (This is still only for males, as Congress did not, in the end, extend draft registration to females, at least until read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 17, 2021

I’ve been reading a book called Whistleblowing for Change, edited by Tatiana Bazzichelli, a beautifully put-together volume with numerous articles about whistleblowing, about art and whistleblowing, and about building a culture of whistleblowing: of supporting whistleblowers, and of making better known the outrages they’ve blown the whistle on. I want to focus here on the sections of this book written by whistleblowers (or in one read more

By Press TV, December 16, 2021

Watch here.

By By Any Means Necessary, December 16, 2021

In this episode of By Any Means Necessary, hosts Sean Blackmon and Jacquie Luqman are joined by David Swanson, activist, journalist, radio host, Executive Director of World BEYOND War and author of the new book “Leaving World War II Behind” to discuss the recently revealed “Talon Anvil” unit which is responsible for killing of civilians in Syria beyond what was already allowed by the military, politicians spreading the mythology of drone warfare read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 15, 2021

Whether or not you’re familiar (as everyone should be) with Peter Ackerman’s book and film “A Force More Powerful” about successful nonviolent activism campaigns, or his other books and films on the same theme, if you have any interest in changing the world for the better you’ll probably want to check out his short new book, The Checklist to End Tyranny. A webinar on this book would have accomplished radically more than the read more

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, December 15, 2021

Edward Tick’s book, Coming Home in Vietnam, is made up of lovely and powerful poems. But I can’t help wishing they weren’t needed. Just as some members of Veterans For Peace talk about honoring veterans by ceasing to create any more veterans, I wish we could honor these poems by eliminating the need — and it clearly is a need, not a desire — for anyone to write any more of them. Other types of poetry would be welcome!

The poems take read more