JEFF COHEN and NORMAN SOLOMON – In a play by Bertolt Brecht, the persecuted astronomer Galileo says: “Unhappy the land that needs heroes.” Right now, the United States is unhappy enough to need a lot of heroes – and during this election year, many have emerged. Here are five of the notable ones.
Author: Oregon PeaceWorks
Can We Reverse Out-of-Control Campaign Spending?
SONALI KOLHATKAR – Every election, wealthy elites spend record-breaking amounts of money to influence outcomes. What can be done to stop it?
If you are among those who want to help elections safeguards hold and enforce election results, here’s how
DANIEL HUNTER – A NY Times editorial opined, “The Trump Era Is Fading.” That doesn’t quite capture it — but there are indeed signs: the MAGA coalition is splintering, much of the country has run out of patience with Trump, and Trump 2.0 is no longer the freight train it was. It looks more like the chaotic Trump 1.0 era. But MAGA’s goals for authoritarian consolidation remain real — complete with cabinet accomplices — making all the more need to sign-up and be ready for post-election nonsense.
Why We Must Stand with Major Jason Watson
JEFFREY STERLING – For almost two months, an Air Force officer has been sitting alone in a cell, twenty-four hours a day. When they let him out to eat or exercise, he’s still alone, according to his attorney. His name is Major Jason Watson. He hasn’t been convicted of anything. Under military law he is presumed innocent, yet he’s still in that cell.
How to Stop Trump’s Coup: Lessons from South Korea
PAUL ROGAT LOEB and JUNGMIN CHOI – Have pro-democracy organizers across the US engaged enough people to prevent Trump from overturning election results he doesn’t like? We won’t know until Election Day and the days immediately after. Meanwhile, South Korea’s example can inspire and instruct us as Americans defend our own beleaguered democracy.
The Greatest Risk for Business Is Inaction
DR. MARIA J. STEPHAN and HARDY MERRIMAN – When business leaders hear concerns about democratic backsliding, they tend to dismiss it as alarmist. But the facts suggest that many in the business community aren’t scared enough—or ready to act when they need to. If the United States stays on its current track, the losses for business will be significant. The greatest peril companies face today is not the risk of speaking up—it is the risk of staying silent.
Beyond Borders: Building community in the face of displacement
NORBERT BYAMBO KAGOSI and DR. MUJIB ABID – In Nakivale, Norbert’s work as a peacebuilder, educator and co-founder of New Talent for the Best Future is part of an ongoing effort to build a future with fellow refugees. Displacement has shaped this work, but it does not exhaust the possibilities of his life or theirs. As we look towards Beyond Borders, we ask what becomes possible when displaced people are recognized as organizers, educators and political actors, with a voice in shaping the conditions of our shared world.
Most likely to secede
TOM HASTINGS – Many say, “we are one nation, helping each other through disasters with the might of our government and resources.” Not any more. I’m an old man, mid-70s, and in my long life I have never witnessed a regime so partisan, so clearly into blatant and grossly unAmerican retributive actions, such as withholding disaster aid from states who didn’t vote for him, as Trump has done.
Decoding Pro-Israel Buzzwords in a Time of Genocide
NORMAN SOLOMON – The standard gotcha question “Do you believe Israel has a right to exist?” can be answered with clear questions: “Do you think apartheid South Africa had a right to exist?” . . . “Do you think ethnic cleansing has a right to exist?” . . . “Do you think genocide has a right to exist?” . . . “Do you think the tens of thousands of Palestinian children killed by the Israeli military had a right to exist?”
Israel has committed genocide in Gaza, UN commission of inquiry says
DAVID GRITTEN and IMOGEN FOULKES – A new report says there are reasonable grounds to conclude that four of the five genocidal acts defined under international law have been carried out since the start of the war with Hamas in 2023
Why we need to think outside the box this election
DANIEL HUNTER – Defending the upcoming election from authoritarian capture will require massive turnout, and we all have roles to play.
The Quiet Part Out Loud
SCOT NAKAGAWA – The administration learned something in Minneapolis. It learned that we were watching, and that being watched was costing it a lot. So it moved the work to places where it thought we wouldn’t look. Our job is to look there, and to say the quiet part out loud.
China’s Economy: Success is Not as Rosy as It May Seem
MEL GURTOV – If we read nothing other than the mainstream media, we are likely to be persuaded that China has the world’s most robust economy, that its leadership in many aspects of international trade mirrors its strengths at home, and that its economic problems are far more manageable than are problems in the US. All those conclusions need a second look. The truth of the matter is far more complicated–and quite worrisome to many Chinese economists and sociologists.
Ritter Warns Us Again. Will We Pay Attention This Time?
SCOTT RITTER – The real question is, what will those who have access to this information do to hold their respective leadership accountable for actions being taken in their name?
In the UN: A Campaign to Address Global Economic Inequality
LAWRENCE WITTNER – There has been a persistent struggle between rich and poor within societies and nations over the course of human history. In this case, however, the class struggle has reached the global level, with the possibility of global action to address the scandal of vast economic inequality.
We Need More Than a Midterm Victory; We Need an Abolitionist Vision
SONALI KOLHATKAR – Ahead of the midterm elections, voters need to clearly articulate a radical framework for spending our collective wealth.
Trump Has Not Stopped Renewable Energy! By the End of His First 18 Months in Office, Fossil Fuels + Nuclear Power Grew by 2.6-GW while Renewables + Batteries Ballooned by 88.7-GW`
SUN DAY CAMPAIGN – “Over the last 18 months, the Trump Administration has used every conceivable trick to delay, hinder, or cancel new clean energy projects,” noted the SUN DAY Campaign’s executive director Ken Bossong. “Yet, while fossil fuels and nuclear power have added just 2.6-GW of net new capacity, renewables and battery storage have grown by 88.7-GW. Clearly, the White House has bet on the wrong horse.”
TV Networks Decline Pool Coverage After Trump Bans News Outlets From White House
JAKE JOHNSON – “We’re glad to see that these news organizations are suing,” said Jameel Jaffer. “The president’s decision to bar them from the White House for the content of their reporting is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment. It’s an attack both on press freedom and the public’s right to independent information about the government.”
Chairman Xi goes to Washington
MEL GURTOV – China’s President Xi Jinping’s sixth visit to the US has come and gone. Expectations were low for any kind of breakthrough on longstanding issues such as Taiwan’s status, human rights, the South China Sea (SCS), and especially tariffs. The emphasis was on pomp and circumstance, which Trump provided in abundance.
AI Is Moving Into Nuclear Weapons Systems. Fail-Safe Reviews Are Critical.
ISABELLE WILLIAMS – The integration of AI into nuclear systems is underway. The guardrails, safety, and security frameworks needed to understand and manage the consequences are not. A new generation of AI-informed nuclear fail-safe reviews is urgently needed in all countries with nuclear weapons.
Public Service Update from Oregon’s Secretary of State
TOBIAS READ – New week, new round of updates from the Secretary of State’s office.
Trump Mismanages US-China Relations Around AI
MEL GURTOV – A major incident in OpenAI’s lab suggests the urgency of a US-China agreement to slow down AI’s development while there is still time. Major AI company heads, including Elon Musk, believe a slowdown is essential. But those who, like Trump, are only concerned with winning the AI race and have no sense of urgency about its unrestrained development are unlikely to change course.
Don’t Look Away from What the US is Helping Do in Israel
KATHY KELLY – The latest U.S. weapon sale to Israel further confirms U.S. complicity with Israel’s genocidal war crimes against Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank. We must heed an urgent call issued by those most impacted by the war crimes: “Don’t look away.”
Insiders are betting on war: How prediction markets are becoming a national security threat
DAVID SZAKONYI, MICHELLE KENDLER-KRETSCH, MICHAEL HORNSBY – It is not enough just to ban insider trading or even require more robust identification of bettors. Collectively, people need to decide whether there are certain topics that should not be wagered on. National security must come before personal profit.
Real History: After 9/11, the “War on Terror” Was a War of Terror
NORMAN SOLOMON – The crusade that George W. Bush launched to “rid the world of evil” only compounded it. Now, as the nation’s military juggernaut advances, the mindsets that propel it are in dire need of direct challenge.
Introduction: What went wrong with the internet—and how do we fix it
DAN DROLLETTE JR – The premise of the September 9, 2026, issue of the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists is straightforward: What went wrong with the internet, and how do we fix it—particularly in an era when data centers and artificial intelligence seem about to overrun the Earth.
25 years after 9/11, how do we build a movement to stop endless wars?
MARK ENGLER – As Trump wages an unpopular war with Iran, historian Jeremy Varon discusses what we can learn from the movement that turned the tide against the Iraq War.
Torture as a US Option Did Not Start with Trump
NORMAN SOLOMON – There are repeated torture practices from the aftermath of 9/11 to Trump and his administration’s acceptance of uses of torture.
US communities are organizing to end complicity with genocide in their backyards
VICTORIA VALENZUELA – Having a community-based coalition has empowered residents by giving them a platform for action. “Having a coalition has really been a space for community members to be able to feel empowered to be involved in shaping their community,” Hua said. “We want to continue to strengthen the community power and not let this get swept under the rug, and so we are continuing to show up to city council meetings and continuing to build that power.”
What the 1960s can teach us about cross-racial solidarity
ALEXANDRIA SHANER – Alice Echols’ new history of the Panthers and SNCC, “Black Power, White Heat,” emphasizes the possibility — and power — of solidarity across real differences. Solidarity is something we build. In an age increasingly defined by attempts to divide us, building solidarity may be one of the most important forms of power we have.
It’s Possible to Salvage Canadian-American Friendship―and Much More
LAWRENCE WITTNER – These international institutions — United Nations, International Court of Justice, and International Criminal Court — remain relatively weak, largely because the rulers of powerful nations prefer to bypass them so that they can keep the reins of power in their own hands. Nevertheless, with public effort, these institutions can be strengthened so that they can more effectively perform their vital role of safeguarding the human community. The current crisis in U.S.-Canadian relations is the latest indication that it’s time to get on with that job.
Europe’s Experience Shows that Nuke Plants are NOT Reliable
LINDA PENTZ GUNTER – Fires and droughts could not spell out more clearly why nuclear power is the worst kind of risk under climate crisis conditions.
How the US Is Driving the Rise of the Businessmen-Politician
JOHN P. RUEHL – The ultrawealthy have always influenced politics, but the Trump administration has brought them directly into policymaking. The phenomenon is already global, creating new channels of influence within and between states.
Capitalism or Socialism? It’s not a binary choice. Moderate Democrats are making a mistake.
BOB TOPPER – Moderates in the Democratic Party, rather than fighting the left, should be listening. The lefts’ message connects with ordinary Americans who are fed up with the establishment, fed up with the vast amounts of dark money in politics, and fed up with government that prioritizes the interests of corporations and the wealthy over the common good.
Flock Camera Protests, Border Wall Tree Sit & Green Amendments
RIVERA SUN – A number of nonviolent solutions, ones that are practical, tangible and already underway, gives Rivera Sun hope “By directly meeting the needs of the people,” writes Saul Levin and Samantha Markel, “parallel institutions expose government inadequacies and provide a vision for the future.”
This Is How We Take Back What’s Ours
ROXANNE D. BROWN – Working people struggle to buy groceries, pay utilities, and purchase homes while the wealthy fritter away obscene sums just because they can. Here’s the good news: It isn’t too late to take back what’s ours.
US Funding Cuts Spur World Hunger and Starvation to Crisis Levels
LAWRENCE WITTNER – A new direction is needed to avert massive human suffering and death. In the immediate future, other wealthy nations could step up to fill the funding gap left by the Trump administration. Longer term, the United Nations and its agencies could be provided with an independent source of income, thereby ending their dependence on the whims of individual nations―especially those nations directed by people so fantastically wealthy that they lack any comprehension of hunger and its effects. Until remedial action is taken, however, world hunger and starvation will continue as a disgrace to humanity.
The first anti-AI protester to be jailed has a message for OpenAI, Anthropic and Meta: ‘Regain your humanity’
ROBERT BOOTH – Wynd Kaufman, the activist who blocked the entrance to one of the world’s biggest AI companies, is believed to have become the first person jailed for protesting against artificial intelligence as supporters dub her the “Rosa Parks of AI risk.”
Real Power No Longer Resides in Military Might
WINSLOW MYERS – When are we going to understand that power no longer resides in military might, but instead in mutual understanding of what leads to common survival? The prevention of war by tenuous military superiority has now become unworkable on this planet, forever. When we admit this to ourselves, the door to new visions of security will open.
Inside the longest refugee protest in history
MATT BENSON – The choice of nonviolence isn’t incidental. In a system designed to render them invisible, protesters have chosen a strategy that forces the world to look. They have chosen to absorb violence without returning it, not as a form of passivity, but as a strategy grounded in their reality. Their discipline in the face of brutality lays bare the moral asymmetry of the system that claims to protect them while imprisoning them.
Peace Requires Leaders Who Understand the Limits of Power
GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE – George Payne explains and exposes the “limits of power” for every political leader, using Donald Trump as the example of one who does not understand what limits his power. Every presidency eventually encounters forces beyond politics. There comes a point when personality collides with reality—and reality cannot be negotiated, litigated or rebranded. Three realities illustrate that truth: science, the rule of law, and geopolitics.
Robert Hubbell’s Democracy Brigade
ROB OKUN – There’s a five-alarm autocratic wildfire raging. It isn’t necessary to be an activist to feel the hot flames of fascism licking the edges of the Constitution. Robert Hubbell has donned his firefighting gear and stepped into the fray. What about the rest of us—what are we going to do?
Is Netanyahu on His Way Out? Current Status in Israel/Palestine
MEL GURTOV – David Remnick, who writes for The New Yorker from Israel (August 3), believes Trump holds the key to a Netanyahu victory (in a critical election October 27). At the moment that’s not good news for Netanyahu, since Trump has clearly regarded Bibi as an obstacle to a war settlement with Iran. But Trump is notoriously unpredictable. He “may still prefer the devil he knows,” Remnick writes.
Nuclear for Another Dictator? Trump’s Bad Deal with Saudi Arabia
MEL GURTOV – Even putting aside this transaction between two unreliable and faithless leaders, providing Saudi Arabia with nuclear technology is a bad deal that should never have been offered. It is full of holes on enrichment, runs an unacceptable risk of nuclear proliferation, and while good for Israel will do nothing to help the Palestinian people establish their own country. The deal demonstrates a deplorable lack of foresight of Trump and his advisers in their willingness to trade extraordinary policy and strategic gifts for nothing that is in the human interest.
The rulers of the nuclear powers are slow learners
LAWRENCE WITTNER – Although 81 years have passed since the atomic bombing of Japan in August 1945, the rulers of major nations continue their reckless march toward a nuclear holocaust.
The data center backlash that’s uniting America
NICK ENGELFRIED – The organized opposition to data centers builds on a wave of popular fury with the AI industry and its massive footprint, unlike almost anything in recent U.S. history. Moreover, “concerns about data centers are agitating even people who have never taken a public stand on any issue before,” Seed said. “They’re willing to take a stand on this.”
Arrested for Clapping, Iranian Prisoner Hunger Strike & Stopping Robot Teachers
RIVERA SUN – In the baffling koan of these times, what is the sound of our one hand clapping? All our voices, singing.
A Brief History of How Countries Sleepwalk Into War
JOHN P. RUEHL – From the Civil War and World War I to the ongoing conflict in Iran, America’s and other nations’ expectations of war have repeatedly been challenged by the realities that emerge once fighting begins.
How Anti-Worker Lawmakers Are Trying to Muzzle Voters
ROXANNE D. BROWN – Sooner or later, anti-worker lawmakers will learn that there’s no silencing voters like United Steelworkers (USW) members and other voters. The harder they try, the louder we get.
The World Cup Reminded Us What America Can Be
GEORGE CASSIDY PAYNE – The World Cup gave us a glimpse of America at its best: a place where strangers become neighbors, where cultures meet and create something new, and where diversity becomes not a source of fear but a foundation for belonging.