So the state of Virginia is going to be run (House, Senate, and Governorship) by members of the Democratic Party for the first time in decades.

This means either that the go-to excuse of elected Democrats is going to become something other than “It’s the Republicans’ fault,” or that change is actually upon us.

Why not take this opportunity to consider what a changed government might look like?

The state of Virginia could, if it chose, take any number of progressive steps. read more

November 11, 2019, is Armistice Day 101 (or 102 if you want to be all mathematically accurate and elitist about it). Anyway, it’s been over a century now since World War I was ended at a scheduled moment (11 o’clock on the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918).

For decades in the United States, as elsewhere, Armistice Day (in some countries it’s called Remembrance Day) was a holiday of peace, of sad remembrance and the joyful ending of war, and of a commitment to preventing war read more

Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO), the President of Mexico, was not eager to accept Donald Trump’s offer to fight a war against drug dealers. In fact, AMLO replied as follows (in so far as I’m able to translate; see the video below to verify, and please send me your translations):

The worst that could be, the worst thing we could see, would be war.

Those who have read about war, or those who have suffered from a war, know what war means.

War is the opposite of politics. read more

You cannot promote the rule of law by loudly bragging about committing murder. You cannot end terrorism by committing terrorism. Here is a U.S. president openly proclaiming that he has committed murder in order to let people be afraid they’ll be next. If anything fits the definition of terrorism, that does. The U.S. public cannot see it because (1) whatever the U.S. does is good, (2) Trump’s fans support anything he does, (3) loyalists of the Democratic Party believe that any crimes read more

KOREAN BELOW THE ENGLISH

By David Swanson, World BEYOND War, October 26, 2019

I’ve never heard of or even seen fantasized a society or a government that wasn’t deeply flawed. I know neither North nor South Korea is an exception. But the primary impediment to peace in Korea appears to be the United States: its government, its media, its billionaires, its people, and even the arm of the U.S. called the United Nations.

The U.S. public has, and chooses to have, very little control over its government, read more

CODEPINK & ADDICTED To WAR

Invite You To A Talk By

DAVID SWANSON

Co-Founder & Executive Director of WORLD BEYOND WAR

Saturday, January 18^th – 7:00 PM

Doors Open at 6:30 PM

At

The Peace Center

3916 Sepulveda, Culver City 90230

Free Parking Behind Building and at The Book Store Next Door

With Special Guests

Lila Garrett, Tahil Sharma, Jodie Evans & Frank Dorrel

Music by Dennis Davis

$5 to $10 Donation at the Door

read more

An example from Georgia of something Charlottesville, Va., does not have.

James W. Loewen’s wonderful book Lies Across America has been published in a revised 20th anniversary edition, containing a chapter called “Public History After Charlottesville.” In this usage, “Charlottesville” is an event, not a place. Specifically, it’s a fascist rally that happened here in 2017.

Loewen chronicles the dramatic surge immediately after and ever since that event in the reworking read more

There were whispers in the village, high up in the mountains of Afghanistan. There was a Stranger here. He had made a friend and been invited to live in a home despite not being family, despite probably not even being of the ethnicity or religion of every person who could be trusted.

The Stranger had obtained for a family a small interest-free loan and helped them create a store. He’d hired kids off the street. Now the kids were inviting other kids to come and talk with the Stranger about read more