Trump at the UN: “Wrong Speech, at the Wrong Time, to the Wrong Audience”

September 23, 2017
Trump at the UN: “Wrong Speech, at the Wrong Time, to the Wrong Audience”

PATRICK T. HILLER - “It was the wrong speech, at the wrong time, to the wrong audience,” Swedish foreign Minister Margot Wallström expressed about what global and U.S. audiences helplessly had to endure during President Donald Trump’s September 19, 2017 address to the United Nations General Assembly. President Trump acted like a bully, but...

Anti-Pipeline Activists across the Country Unite to #StopETP

September 21, 2017
Anti-Pipeline Activists across the Country Unite to #StopETP

BRANDON JORDAN - The company behind the Dakota Access pipeline and many other damaging fossil fuel projects — Energy Transfer Partners — was the focus of nearly 20 actions spanning 10 U.S. states last week. The #StopETP protests, which took place on Friday and Saturday, included a flotilla on a Louisiana bayou, a blockade...

10 Ways Shame & Blame Hurts Social Justice Efforts

September 19, 2017

VANISSAR TARAKALI - We have all experienced it. We have inflicted it on ourselves or others. Subtle and not-so-subtle shaming, blaming and self-righteous ostracizing undermine social justice work. But let’s say our community or social justice group decides to take these habitual shame and blame pitfalls seriously. Changing old habits is possible when we...

“Carpe Diem Politics”: How to Do More Than Just Resist

September 17, 2017
“Carpe Diem Politics”: How to Do More Than Just Resist

ROMAN KRZNARIC - Here’s something that might surprise you: One of the most powerful weapons we can use against far-right authoritarians like President Donald Trump has its roots in ancient philosophy. In particular, we can draw on the idea of carpe diem, or “seize the day,” a maxim penned by the Roman poet Horace....

Impacts of Trump & Paxton’s Policies: “U.S. Might Not Have Enough Construction Workers to Rebuild”

September 15, 2017

PRESS RELEASE FROM AMERICA'S VOICE : TEXAS - As Hurricane Harvey’s destruction and devastation continues across Texas and Louisiana, key elected, community, and thought leaders are looking towards the next step: rebuilding. Daniel Gross of Slate reports that Trump’s harsh and un-American immigration policies may have an unintended consequence – hampering construction efforts in...

Mass Civil Disobedience Campaign Obstructs One of Europe’s Largest Polluters

September 13, 2017
Mass Civil Disobedience Campaign Obstructs One of Europe’s Largest Polluters

SARA FREEMAN-WOOLPERT - Red and yellow circus tents rose over the Rhineland farmland of western Germany last weekend, as over 6,000 climate justice activists converged for a series of action days to protest coal mining in the region. This included a mass civil disobedience campaign called Ende Gelände (or Here and No Further), in...

9 Amazing New Innovations That Are Creating More Fuel Efficiency

September 11, 2017

MARSHALL TULLEY - We’ve all heard that cars are getting more efficient. But how exactly is this happening? Here are 9 innovations driving the increased efficiency.

German Foreign Minister Joins Calls to Withdraw US Nukes from the Country

September 9, 2017

RT NEWS - Germany’s top diplomat has backed the suggestion of Social Democrat (SPD) leader and Chancellor hopeful Martin Schulz, who has pledged to rid his country of US nukes. Washington, meanwhile, is pressing ahead to modernize its nuclear stockpile.

Stop Fetishizing These War Victims And The Piece Of Cloth They’re Draped In

September 7, 2017
Stop Fetishizing These War Victims And The Piece Of Cloth They’re Draped In

CAITLIN JOHNSTONE - The practice of invoking fallen soldiers in order to win debates about toxic US policies is obscene, illogical, and pernicious, and it needs to stop.

Sleeping Near a Forest Fire

September 5, 2017
Sleeping Near a Forest Fire

JENNIFER HOFMANN - It isn't exactly the kind of situation you go looking for, pitching your tent mere miles from a forest inferno, sleeping on the ground zipped up into a sleeping bag. But it exactly what is happening in America right now. On the precipice of danger, finding a way to live.

‘There must be another way’: Israeli 19-year-old Jailed for Refusing Military Service

September 3, 2017
‘There must be another way’: Israeli 19-year-old Jailed for Refusing Military Service

BETHAN MCKERNAN - ‘I do not believe in building walls but building bridges,’ pacifist Noa Gur Golan says in rare case of IDF draft refusal. “When I was little, I dreamt of being an IDF war pilot,” says 19-year-old Noa Gur Golan. Now, however, the teenager is sitting in Military Prison 396 near Haifa....

North Korea Has Many Reasons to Fear the US but the US Has Few to Fear North Korea

September 1, 2017
North Korea Has Many Reasons to Fear the US but the US Has Few to Fear North Korea

JOHN LAFORGE - The US public wants to know why North Korea is so paranoid, militarily hostile and boastful. LaForge answers.

Talk Now. A Nuclear Conflict is Unwinnable

August 30, 2017

WAR PREVENTION INITIATIVE -- Press Release - The War Prevention Initiative strongly argues that there is no military solution to the rising tensions on the Korean Peninsula and that all sectors of society need to disrupt the escalation and insist on talks.

Mayors for Peace Call for Early Adoption of Nuclear Abolition Treaty

August 28, 2017

MAYORS FOR PEACE - “We call on the cities around the world to unite in cross-border cooperation to pave the way towards the abolition of nuclear weapons.” This call made by the Mayors of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the establishment of “Mayors for Peace.” Since then, we have appealed for the establishment of...

Ann Wright Wins 2017 Peace Prize

August 26, 2017

U.S. PEACE MEMORIAL FOUNDATION - We are pleased to announce that the US Peace Memorial Foundation has awarded its 2017 Peace Prize to The Honorable Ann Wright “for courageous antiwar activism, inspirational peace leadership, and selfless citizen diplomacy.”

Don’t Feed the Trolls – How to Combat the Alt-Right

August 24, 2017
Don’t Feed the Trolls – How to Combat the Alt-Right

KAZU HAGA - Nazism and white supremacy are forms of violence. Let’s start there. The constitution does not protect violence, and I’m happy to see that the California chapter of the ACLU has taken a stand against protecting the “free speech” of hate groups. But with or without marching permits, it is clear that...

Should I Go to That Neo-Nazi Rally to Fight Back?

August 22, 2017

STEPHANIE VAN HOOK and MICHAEL NAGLER - When we hear that the Neo-Nazi movement is coming to our town, most of us naturally feel called—or pushed-- to some kind of action. But not every action is going to be effective, especially if we are walking into a situation where the level of dehumanization is...

What Did MLK Mean by “Love”?

August 20, 2017
What Did MLK Mean by “Love”?

JOSE-ANTONIO OROSCO - As someone who regularly teaches about the political philosophy of Martin Luther King, Jr., I often spend time discussing with students the ways in which King’s ideas are taken out of context and turned into sound bites in order to support positions he would not himself have taken.

Amid the Blaring Headlines, Routine Reports of Hate-Fueled Violence

August 18, 2017
Amid the Blaring Headlines, Routine Reports of Hate-Fueled Violence

JOE SEXTON - Documenting Hate’s catalogue of incidents captures the seeming ordinariness of many of them.

Chemical Industry’s Years of Deadly Malfeasance Revealed in “Poison Papers”

August 16, 2017
Chemical Industry’s Years of Deadly Malfeasance Revealed in “Poison Papers”

SHARON LERNER - For decades, some of the dirtiest, darkest secrets of the chemical industry have been kept in Carol Van Strum’s barn. Creaky, damp, and prowled by the occasional black bear, the listing, 80-year-old structure in rural Oregon housed more than 100,000 pages of documents obtained through legal discovery in lawsuits against Dow,...

To Protect Our Planet and Revitalize Our Economy, We Need a Climate Conservation Corps

August 14, 2017
To Protect Our Planet and Revitalize Our Economy, We Need a Climate Conservation Corps

DAVID BAAKE - Although programs like the Clean Power Plan would create hundreds of thousands of jobs, they are not framed as job-creating measures, and are not understood by the public as such. In fact, many people incorrectly assume that regulations lead to reduced employment. The Climate Conservation Corps avoids this pitfall by...

How Congress Is Cementing Trump’s Anti-Climate Orders into Law

August 12, 2017
How Congress Is Cementing Trump’s Anti-Climate Orders into Law

MARIANNE LAVELLE - These efforts are mostly flying under the radar, but they could short-circuit lawsuits and make it harder to restore environmental protections.

‘Fossil Fuels are Dead,’ Says CSX Railroad Chief: No More New Trains for Coal, Ever

August 10, 2017
‘Fossil Fuels are Dead,’ Says CSX Railroad Chief: No More New Trains for Coal, Ever

JOHN VOELCKER - The industrial revolution that began around 1750 was powered in large part by coal, and the carbon-rich fuel had 200 good years after that. By the middle of the last century, however, serious studies had begun of its deleterious effects on human health—and that was before the climate-change impact of human...

Why and How to Bring Environmental and Peace Movements Together

August 8, 2017
Why and How to Bring Environmental and Peace Movements Together

DAVID SWANSON - If war were moral, legal, defensive, beneficial to the spread of freedom, and inexpensive, we would be obliged to make abolishing it our top priority solely because of the destruction that war and preparations for war do as the leading polluters of our natural environment.

The Time for Outlawing Nukes is NOW. Get US on Board.

August 6, 2017
The Time for Outlawing Nukes is NOW. Get US on Board.

TOM H. HASTINGS - We have been living with nuclear weapons for 72 years, so that must make them safe and sustainable, right? Wrong.

The Ethics and Politics of Nuclear Waste are Being Tested in Southern California

August 4, 2017

JAMES HEDDLE - In the US, as more and more energy reactors are being shut down and are entering the decommissioning process, the overriding question is becoming unavoidable at reactor communities across the country: What do we do with all these decades of tons of accumulated radwaste now being stored on-site? Each canister...

Working in Concert: Remedy for Flawed Democracy

August 2, 2017

ROBERT J. GOULD - Last year, the Economist Intelligence Unit dropped its score for the U.S. from 8.05 to 7.98 (Above 8 is a full democracy; below 8 is a flawed democracy). Not much of a change, and according to the report, no fault of the current President, as the rating has been “teetering...

Ohio’s War On Wind Power Is Costing It Billions Of Dollars & Thousands Of Jobs

July 31, 2017
Ohio’s War On Wind Power Is Costing It Billions Of Dollars & Thousands Of Jobs

HARVEY WASSERMAN - In the corporate war against renewable energy, a single Ohio regulation stands out. It is a simple clause slipped into the state budget without open discussion, floor debate, or public hearings. The restriction is costing Ohio billions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

C’mon Millennials, Woodstock is Over and Our Seniors Deserve a Break

July 29, 2017
C’mon Millennials, Woodstock is Over and Our Seniors Deserve a Break

CHLOE MEYERE - On Jan. 21, I took a walk down Pennsylvania Avenue with a million like-minded 'friends.' I swore it was the beginning of an epic uprising, the first one where millennials could be the leaders. I was so certain that my generation would be responsible for the president's downfall that I wrote...

In Our America: Community Building 101

July 27, 2017

ALI KING - As the night of Tuesday, November 8, began to go downhill, like many Americans, I felt stunned and sickened. I hadn't actually allowed myself to imagine things going the way they did and the unthinkable had happened. Just a few months earlier, everyone was scoffing at the idea of Trump becoming...

Is It Time to Restructure US CEO Compensation?

July 25, 2017

LAWRENCE WITTNER - An awful lot of Americans are skeptical about the value of their nation’s corporate executives. As a 2016 nationwide survey reveals, 74 percent of Americans believe that top corporate executives are overpaid. This public dismay with CEO compensation exists despite the fact that Americans drastically underestimate what top corporate...

The U.S. State of War – July 2017

July 23, 2017
The U.S. State of War – July 2017

NICHOLAS J.S. DAVIES - This is the state of war in the United States in July 2017.

KAICIID, United Nations Join Forces to Prevent Incitement to Violence

July 21, 2017
KAICIID, United Nations Join Forces to Prevent Incitement to Violence

PETER KAISER - The International Dialogue Centre (KAICIID) Secretary General Faisal Bin Muaammar represented the Centre at the launch of the first ever action plan specifically designed to enable religious leaders to prevent and counter incitement to violence.

Businesses Urge Interior Dept. to Preserve Public Lands

July 19, 2017
Businesses Urge Interior Dept. to Preserve Public Lands

ERIC TEGETHOFF - Public lands provide a major economic boost to local communities in Oregon. That's the view of groups that support the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument being kept as it is, as the U.S. Interior Department reviews its status.

An Open Letter To Rep. Barbara Lee: ‘Think Through The Implications Of Our Actions’

July 17, 2017
An Open Letter To Rep. Barbara Lee: ‘Think Through The Implications Of Our Actions’

NORMAN SOLOMON - More than a decade and a half ago, your eloquent words and courageous vote set a high bar as you stood up against a war frenzy on the House floor. Three days after 9/11, you implemented the kind of brave wisdom that we desperately need in a world beset by the...

Trump Is Missing an Opportunity in Cuba

July 15, 2017

MEL GURTOV - President Obama’s engagement with Cuba was one of his administration’s success stories. The policy shift was based on the entirely realistic as well as humanitarian assessment that permanent estrangement deepens enmity, isolates two peoples and separates families, reduces opportunities for improvement in the quality of life in Cuba, inhibits the...

China Firmly Opposes U.S. Arms Sale to Taiwan

July 13, 2017

MU XUEQUAN - China firmly opposes the U.S. arms sale to Taiwan and urges the United States to immediately revoke its decision, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy here said Friday, June 30

Pruitt Will Launch Program to ‘Critique’ Climate Science

July 11, 2017
Pruitt Will Launch Program to ‘Critique’ Climate Science

EMILY HOLDEN - U.S. EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt is leading a formal initiative to challenge mainstream climate science using a "back-and-forth critique" by government-recruited experts, according to a senior administration official. The program will use "red team, blue team" exercises to conduct an "at-length evaluation of U.S. climate science," the official said, referring to...

Trump’s Wall: Ultimate Symbol of an Ultimate Con

July 9, 2017
Trump’s Wall: Ultimate Symbol of an Ultimate Con

ANDREW MOSS - Though Donald Trump failed to get his wall funded when Congress passed a recent $1.1 trillion federal spending package, he did succeed in creating a wall of sorts. Fashioned partly out of words and partly out of existing physical structures and technologies, Trump's wall has effectively cast a shadow of...

Trump Abdicates Control of US Military Interventions

July 7, 2017

MEL GURTOV - Now, just below the radar, the US military is engaged in an ever-increasing number of “advise-and-assist” missions, supplemented by major arms deals and CIA-run drone strikes, that commit the US to long-term intervention in Africa and the Middle East. And Donald Trump, unlike Barack Obama, is happy to cede operational...

The Trump-Putin Meeting and the Fate of the Earth

July 5, 2017
The Trump-Putin Meeting and the Fate of the Earth

NORMAN SOLOMON - Any truthful way to say it will sound worse than ghastly: We live in a world where one person could decide to begin a nuclear war -- quickly killing several hundred million people and condemning vast numbers of others to slower painful deaths. Given the macabre insanity of this ongoing situation,...

July 4: An Appropriate Day to Defend Liberty

July 3, 2017

WIM LAVEN - With a long holiday weekend lined up for the 4th of July most people are probably worried about having enough food for the barbeque, or hoping that their get-togethers aren’t too political. Facebook will be littered with messages of freedom, and assorted dissents. I post a link to Frederick Douglass’ 1852...

Salem Unitarians Vote to Become a Sanctuary Congregation

July 2, 2017

UNITARIAN UNIVERSALIST CONGREGATION OF SALEM (UUCS) PRESS RELEASE - With many Salem and Mid-Willamette Valley families living amid suspicion and fears of deportation, the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Salem (UUCS) voted to become a sanctuary congregation.

What Does it Mean to Vote With Your Dollar?

June 30, 2017

GREENAMERICA - Want to create a greener world that works for all people? One of the most important things you can do is vote with your dollars. Where you spend and invest your money is a powerful way of voting each day to support local communities, fair wages, and a healthy planet.

Let’s Have ““A Decent Respect for the Opinions of Mankind” and Ban Nukes

June 28, 2017
Let’s Have ““A Decent Respect for the Opinions of Mankind” and Ban Nukes

WINSLOW MYERS - The distractions of the Trump presidency, even including Russian attempts to hack our democracy, have swamped events that may in the long run be of far greater historical significance. A primary example is the historic ongoing U.N. conference concerning the prohibition and eventual abolition of nuclear weapons— and our own nation’s...

Subcommittee Passes Bill to Make Yucca Mountain the U.S. Nuclear Repository

June 26, 2017

CRAIG FIEGENER and MARVIN CLEMONS - Despite Nevada protests against it, a measure to make Yucca Mountain the nation's nuclear waste repository advanced in a congressional subcommittee Thursday morning.

The Unifying Force of War Abolition

June 23, 2017
The Unifying Force of War Abolition

DAVID SWANSON - It's not unusual for an activist, focused on one of the millions of worthy causes out there, to try to recruit other activists to that particular cause. That's not exactly what I want to do. For one thing, if we are going to succeed we are going to have to recruit...

The Real Reason Your City Has No Money

June 21, 2017
The Real Reason Your City Has No Money

CHARLES MAROHN - America needs a different model of growth and development.

Coal Miners Are Pawns in Trump’s Fossil Fuel Agenda

June 18, 2017
Coal Miners Are Pawns in Trump’s Fossil Fuel Agenda

ROB BYERS - Earlier this spring, I was asked a question about my late father, who had been a coal miner in the 1970s and ’80s. It had to do with a familiar romantic storyline: Did he feel at home underground? Was it a calling that tugged at him during the layoffs, a longing...

Will “Nones” make America more liberal?

June 16, 2017

JAMES A. HAUGHT - The steady retreat of religion in America may shift politics to the left. Surveys find that young Americans who say their faith is "none" generally hold humane progressive values, supporting women's equality, gay rights, universal healthcare, legal marijuana, free college and other liberal goals. Decline of religion is perhaps...