The PeaceWorker – Oregon PeaceWorks' monthly news magazine

Analysis, January 2019

The Democrats Can Only Move Left

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 16, 2019 • 0 Comments

HARVEY WASSERMAN – The Democratic Party has nowhere to go but left. The faux mantra from bloviating experts, petulant pundits, and high-priced consultants has been droning on since the coming of Ronald Reagan: the Democrats must forever tack right to attract “swing” conservatives in the “mainstream middle” between the two parties. But in the Age of Trump, such voters are all but extinct. The middle ground has cratered. The swing constituency (if it ever existed) has disappeared into the abyss. What matters now is excitement, commitment, clarity, and REAL CHANGE … none of which can come with a corporate/compromised agenda.

Analysis, January 2019

Green New Deal Must Abolish War Preparations

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 14, 2019 • 0 Comments

ROBERT KOEHLER – The Green New Deal needs to go further than it does. Since it’s already being pilloried as the most radical piece of legislation in modern history, it might as well open itself up to become just that: the cornerstone of a truly sustainable national and global future. The Deal should take on militarism and war as well as climate change and poverty; they are all linked.

Analysis, January 2019

Four Reasons the Corporate Media Refuses to Talk About Things That Matter

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 13, 2019 • 0 Comments

THOM HARTMANN – Ever since the media began, in a big way in the 1980s, to ignore actual news and go for highly dumbed-down or even salacious stories, many of us who work in the media have been astonished by this behavior by the network and cable news organizations and the major newspapers. They used to report the details of policy proposals in great detail (see this report from the 1970s about Richard Nixon’s proposal for universal health care, comparing his with Ted Kennedy’s, for example). But since the Reagan era, the networks have largely kept their coverage exclusively to personality, scandal, and horse race.

Analysis, January 2019

Award-Winning Journalist Quits NBC Over Relentless Support For War

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 10, 2019 • 0 Comments

WILLIAM M. ARKIN – January 4 is my last day at NBC News and I’d like to say goodbye to my friends, hopefully not for good. This isn’t the first time I’ve left NBC, but this time the parting is more bittersweet, the world and the state of journalism in tandem crisis. My expertise, though seeming to be all the more central to the challenges and dangers we face, also seems to be less valued at the moment. And I find myself completely out of synch with the network, being neither a day-to-day reporter nor interested in the Trump circus.

Analysis, January 2019

Action Needed to Prevent Brazilian Indigenous Genocide and Protect the Amazon

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 8, 2019 • 0 Comments

J. P. LINSTROTH – It is official. On the first of the year, Jair Bolsonaro, was inaugurated as the 38thPresident of Brazil. One of his first official acts as a newly inaugurated president was doing away with demarcation of indigenous territories in Brazil. All of us living on this planet should be fearful of this act.

January 2019, What's Happening In the Movement

Beatrice Fihn Is Banning Nuclear Weapons, With or Without Us

by Oregon PeaceWorks • January 6, 2019 • 0 Comments

EMILY MOON – Beatrice Fihn has spent 12 years working on a campaign to prohibit nuclear weapons, and, as she says, compiling rational arguments and scientific evidence, yet less informed strangers will still pick a fight. But, she adds, “I prefer to argue with politicians than people on the street.” Indeed, she has advanced her arguments and will never give up the fight.