The European Commission, far from eager to restore the non-Orwellian name to departments of war — long since rebranded as departments of “defense” — is pushing to get deadly weapons categorized as especially ethical “investments” meeting Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria. Specifically, the tools of war, according to the European Commission, advance the cause of peace.

Those who buy most seriously into the war-makes-peace propaganda have reservations read more

Making demands for basic moral actions of governments unlikely to do most of them anytime soon can be a useful educational and long-term activity.

Here are some demands for governments of the world that many of us have been making, with some variations, but only the beginnings of success, for years now.

1. Arrest Israeli or any other officials facing arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court.
2. Prosecute Israeli criminals under universal jurisdiction.
3. Establish a complete embargo on weapons or weapons parts to or from Israel and to or from any nation not upholding such an arms embargo on Israel.
4. End diplomatic relations with Israel.
5. End financial transactions, trade, and travel to and from Israel.
6. Train and send unarmed civilian defense teams, food, medicine, doctors, and aid workers to Palestine.
7. Develop a major public educational campaign about the genocide in Gaza and the propaganda that has facilitated it.
8. Support a Uniting for Peace action through the UN General Assembly to implement worldwide numbers 3-7 above and to do steps 9-12 below:
9. Economically sanction Israeli war criminals.
10. Expel Israel from the United Nations.
11. Recognize the nation of Palestine.
12. Move UN meetings and headquarters out of the United States.
13. Break off military relations with and expel from your nation troops belonging to any government that is not upholding an arms embargo on Israel.
14. Halt membership or support for weapons-dealing institutions that do not uphold an arms embargo on Israel: the Abraham Accords, NATO, etc.

Now here’s an even less likely demand than any of those to be met anytime soon by any government, much less by two-thirds of a UN General Assembly:

1. Send armed ships and troops to Gaza.

The unlikelihood of its happening does not read more

The End of Everything: How Wars Descend into Annihilation by Victor Davis Hanson seems to be the creation of a member of the MICIMATT in good standing, an advocate for heightened hostilities, an accuser of Obama for “appeasing Iran,” and the actual author of a 2020 book called The Case for Trump. The 2024 preface to The End of Everything makes clear that the author is a believer in Israeli propaganda, and a supporter of the U.S. and NATO and an enemy of their read more

There’s a book called “Open Borders” on the shelves of mainstream corporate bookstores. This is very good news, but it may be because the book is a comic book (fun!) and/or because the book is about economics, very scientistic, and “Libertarian” (none of that caring about people crap!).

Abolition movements will require all types when the institution that needs abolishing is massive and entrenched. World BEYOND War is putting together a read more

Restoring the original and non-Orwellian name to the U.S. Department of War ought to have a positive impact on people’s speech and understanding.

Yes, of course, Trump did it in order to celebrate the sadistic malevolence associated with the word “war.” He did it while pursuing horrific wars in Palestine and Ukraine, threatening (and beginning) wars on Venezuela and Iran, and moving massive resources from human and environmental needs into war preparations in the U.S. and its read more

A fit of honesty by a liar driven by sincere malevolent support for a long-euphemistically disguised project (Trump restoring the name “Department of War”) should not be occasion to marvel at agreement with Trumpolini. Nor should it be occasion to assume he’s blurting out the truth because he’s dying. Rather, we ought to take this opportunity to propose brutally honest names for the whole government.

If Defense becomes War, then . . .

• Congress becomes Royal Court.
• House of Representatives becomes House of Misrepresentatives.
• Senate becomes Chamber of Antiquities for the Protection of Oligarchy.
• White House becomes Nuclear-Armed Throne.
• State becomes Lawfare.
• Health and Human Services becomes Lifespan Reduction.
• Interior becomes Extractivism.
• Housing and Urban Development becomes Rent’s Too Damn Low.
• Homeland Security becomes Fatherland Purity.
• Education becomes Revelation.
• Energy becomes Nukes, Gas, Coal, and Profits.
• Transportation becomes You Left Your House It’s Your Problem.
• Labor becomes CEOs
• Commerce becomes Piracy.
• Agriculture becomes What Doesn’t Kill You Buy More Of.
• Treasury becomes Lockheed Savings and Checking.
• Justice becomes Loyalty Enforcement.

And

• Veterans Affairs becomes You Fall for the Propaganda, You Deal with the Moral Injury, Suckers.

I’m perfectly serious, and would read more

I recently published an article called “The Case Against a Military Intervention to Stop the Gaza Genocide,” not because I like either of the two choices on the usual, supposedly exhaustive list of options (lie back and take it, or kill-kill-kill) but because I think there is another way — or thousands of varieties of another way. That is, the options for nonviolent, strategic, read more