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...

A Call to Mobilize the Nation over the Next 18 Months

June 14, 2017
A Call to Mobilize the Nation over the Next 18 Months

REV. JOHN DEAR - While the media and the nation sit transfixed over the Trump scandals and attacks on democracy, those of us who work for justice and peace know that we have to keep working, resisting, and mobilizing people across the country if we are going to have the social, economic and political...

Trump’s Handling of North Korea Is Going to Lead Us Straight Into Nuclear Disaster

June 12, 2017
Trump’s Handling of North Korea Is Going to Lead Us Straight Into Nuclear Disaster

RAJAN MENON - President Donald Trump wouldn’t be the first leader, confronted with trouble at home, to trigger a crisis abroad and then appeal for unity and paint critics as unpatriotic. Keep in mind, after all, that this is the man who has already warned of “a major, major war” with North Korea.

A Dying Man’s Gift of Awareness

June 10, 2017
A Dying Man’s Gift of Awareness

ROBERT C. KOEHLER -- “Tell them, I want everybody to know, I want everybody on the train to know, I love them . . .” These words are also part of the geopolitics of murder — these words of light and hope, alive and pulsing amid the bullet casings, the blood and wreckage, the...

Swim for Peace: Reaching Out in Peace to Russia

June 3, 2017
Swim for Peace: Reaching Out in Peace to Russia

ELIZABETH MURRAY - The mainstream U.S. media bristles with hostility toward Russia – fueling a New McCarthyism – but the press finds no space for grassroots American gestures of peace.

President Trump: Toss Your Generals’ Escalation Plans in the Trash

June 1, 2017
President Trump: Toss Your Generals’ Escalation Plans in the Trash

RON PAUL - By the end of last month, Defense Secretary James Mattis and National Security Advisor HR McMaster were scheduled to deliver to President Trump their plans for military escalations in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria. President Trump would be wise to rip the plans up and send his national security team back to...

Class War in the Capital City

May 30, 2017
Class War in the Capital City

DON MCINTOSH - There’s a top-down class war under way, but unlike the 1930s, when thugs shot workers on strike picket lines, today’s business organizations are using “hired gun” lobbyists in state capitols, to rewrite the laws — all of them — in their favor. That’s the basic argument made by political scientist Gordon...

This Is What’s Really Behind North Korea’s Nuclear Provocations

May 28, 2017

BRUCE CUMINGS - It’s easy to dismiss Kim Jong-un as a madman. But there’s a long history of US aggression against the North, which we forget at our peril.

US Support of Saudi Attacks on Yemen Must Cease

May 26, 2017
US Support of Saudi Attacks on Yemen Must Cease

KATHY KELLY - The U.S. has decidedly taken the side of the Saudi-led coalition. Consider a Reuters report, on April 19, 2017, after U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis met with senior Saudi officials. According to the report, U.S. officials said “U.S. support for the Saudi-led coalition was discussed including what more assistance the United...

Lockheed Martin-Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles

May 24, 2017
Lockheed Martin-Funded Experts Agree: South Korea Needs More Lockheed Martin Missiles

ADAM JOHNSON - As tensions between the United States and North Korea continue to rise, one think tank, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), has become a ubiquitous voice on the topic of missile defense, providing Official-Sounding Quotes to dozens of reporters in Western media outlets. All of these quotes speak to...

Gorbachev: It Was Worse Than This, and We Fixed It

May 22, 2017
Gorbachev: It Was Worse Than This, and We Fixed It

DAVID SWANSON - On Friday, May 12, in Moscow I and a group from the United States met with former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. He said the current relationship between Washington and Moscow alarmed him. But, he said, it is possible to rebuild trust. “We had a situation that was worse,...

Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump-Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?

May 20, 2017
Tunnel Collapse at Hanford Nuclear Dump-Harbinger of the Collapse of the Entire Industry?

HARVEY WASSERMAN - The collapse of a tunnel at the massive nuclear waste dump at Hanford, Washington, 200 miles east of Seattle, has sent shock waves through a nuclear power industry already in the process of a global collapse.

The American Way of War Is a Budget-Breaker

May 18, 2017
The American Way of War Is a Budget-Breaker

WILLIAM D. HARTUNG - Never has a society spent more for less.

What If He’s Not an Idiot?

May 16, 2017
What If He’s Not an Idiot?

JOHN ATCHESON - It’s worth considering what we are not talking about as we watch the political pornography of the Trump Administration play out and also how the focus on Russia undercuts the Democratic Party. In other words, what if this is exactly what Trump intended when he fired Comey? It’s worth remembering...

Cherokee Nation Lawsuit Holds Drug Distributors Accountable for Opioid Diversion

May 14, 2017

KARLA JO HELMS - Prescription opioid overdose deaths among American Indians and Alaska Natives have increased nearly four-fold since 1999. Novus Medical Detox Center believes a new Cherokee Nation lawsuit against opioid distributors may be the first of many.

Killer Drones Take Another Step Into the Mainstream

May 12, 2017
Killer Drones Take Another Step Into the Mainstream

NORMAN SOLOMON - No longer will the pilots who steer drones and fire missiles while staring at computer screens be confined to remote areas like the Nevada desert. With scant public information or debate, sizable American communities are becoming enmeshed in drone warfare on other continents. Along the way, how deeply will we understand...

Portland, Ore., Becomes First Major U.S. City to End All New Investment in Corporations

May 10, 2017
Portland, Ore., Becomes First Major U.S. City to End All New Investment in Corporations

MELISSA HELLMANN - To avoid doing business with socially irresponsible corporations, the city is willing to lose investment income—about $4.5 million a year.

Needed: A Public Plan for Peace

May 8, 2017
Needed: A Public Plan for Peace

ROBERT C. KOEHLER - The American will to wage war — endless war, pointless war, total war — is, I fear, impervious to public opinion and even political action. It remains alive deep in the underground bunker of American militarism, protected from sanity. This goes beyond the staying power of our loser generals, who...