I can’t exactly call it good news. But some opportunities are opening up to work for a better world in a better way.

Millions of people in the United States, from brilliant authors and pundits to your average “I’m not political” Joe or “I don’t do activism” Jane have spent their lives making an exception. Documenting and denouncing the crimes and abuses of governments has been the rule, often strictly accurately, often with exaggeration or fabrication. read more

David Hartsough, whom we have just lost to cancer at the age of 84, was a giant in the world of recent and not so recent peace activism and not just peace activism. While nobody focused more on highlighting and promoting the work of others, and on organizing and funding and supporting the work of others, David Hartsough’s own story is one of the most remarkable to be found in the genre of lives lived to their fullest for the good of all.

Parts of David Hartsough’s story are told in his 2014 read more

Dear Democratic Party,

Your new approach strikes me as not terribly different from your old approach. Would this be a fair and accurate summary of your new approach? Make any corrections or additions you like, please.

1. Have no policy platform.
2. Be pro-war military veterans.
3. Be accepting of the Republican agenda.
4. Seem authentic and humble.
5. Tolerate stupidity well.

I’m not trying to slant it. Again, change it and expand it how ever you like.

Got it perfected? Want to toss in any of this toxic wa . . . er . . . I mean inciteful collection of wisdom?

All right, now, here’s a challenge.

I challenge you to poll people on which approach they read more

I have zero law degrees. I admit to simply opposing kidnapping people and sticking them in distant foreign prisons.

But I feel perfectly qualified — as I think we all should — to reject Trump’s “legal” defenses of his outrages out of hand.

In one AP report, we can read that Trump and/or his lawyers have claimed several things that don’t meet an individual or collective smell test.

First, Trump claimed he could violate a judge’s order to turn around airplanes read more

There is nothing new about Democrats assisting the Republican agenda, forgoing opportunities to block disastrous legislation on procedural votes, and then making a show of “opposing” bills on a final vote, or openly supporting them while claiming to nonetheless be “against the bill” but afraid of something worse.

There is nothing new about lying, scheming warmongers and Zionists parroting Israeli propaganda long after its thorough debunking, as a sort of pseudo-excuse for read more

Trump says anything the Houthis in Yemen do, he will hold Iran accountable for. Not through the rule of law, of course. Not through restrictions on weapons sales, of course. Through starting another goddamned war, this one with Iran.

If you believe this is a 12-D chess move on the way to banning nukes and slicing military spending in half, have I got a deal for you! You trade in your Tesla and I provide you with a peace bicycle reading on the side “I buy whatever Trump is pedaling.” read more

I know, I know, foreign military bases are spreading like a disease, and governments are openly mocking the rule of law.

But it’s hard to aim without a target. So, I’ve drafted a target.

This is a quick initial draft of something that, if it ever comes to be, will no doubt be improved and worsened by many voices. Please start that process, especially the improving part, by adding comments ​here.
 

Treaty on the Prohibition of Foreign Military Bases and Forces

The States Parties to this Treaty,

Determined to contribute to the realization of the purposes read more

Allies in Europe asked me for a few words from the United States on challenges for peace in these trumpy times. Here they are.

The challenges in working for peace in the United States and the world, during Trump times, are mostly what they already were: overcoming a corrupt communications and education system to inform people of the necessity and possibility of peace, and overcoming corrupt governments to shut down the war machine. But the war machine is growing rapidly, and with it the risk of read more