CHERI MOSSBURG and AMIR VERA – The San Jose, California, city council voted Tuesday night (January 25) to adopt a first-in-the-nation ordinance requiring most gun owners to pay a fee and carry liability insurance, measures aimed at reducing the risk of gun harm by incentivizing safer behavior and easing taxpayers of the financial burden of gun violence.
Category: January 2022
4 Good Reasons NOT to go to War in Ukraine
RIVERA SUN – How many reasons do we need to not go to war with Russia over the Ukraine? Instead of a foolhardy plunge into yet another military conflict, let’s look closer to home and take care of the many crises we face in the United States. Be sure to tell your elected officials this – they may not have gotten the memo.
A Citizen of the World – Still Speaks True
ROBERT C. KOEHLER – The speech, “Beyond Vietnam: A Time to Break the Silence,†is remembered and celebrated (or not) as MLK’s official condemnation of LBJ’s war, inappropriately “mixing peace and civil rights†and shattering ties with the country’s pro-war liberals. My takeaway after reading it: The speech is a lot more than that.
Corporate Sedition is More Damaging to America than the Capitol Attack
ROBERT REICH – The tsunami of money now flowing from corporations into the swamp of American politics is larger than ever. And this money – bankrolling almost all politicians and financing attacks on their opponents – is undermining American democracy as much as did the 147 seditionist members of Congress. Maybe more.
To Nuclear-Armed States: Nice Talk, Now Walk the WalkÂ
PETER BERGEL – We must build a movement strong enough to abolish nuclear weapons altogether. It will take a lot of work and will not happen overnight, but if we want to survive, it is up to the citizens of the nuclear-armed nations to demand that their governments conclude the nuclear disarmament agreements necessary to enable all of them to sign the nuclear ban treaty.
Why the Dutch are Closing Prisons – and What They’re Doing with Empty Ones
DEBORAH NICHOLLS-LEE – The Netherlands has reduced its prison population to such a degree that it’s now turning old prisons into socially useful buildings, such as schools and refugee centres. What went right?
Candidates, Keep it Clean! The Exhausted Majority is Urging
MELINDA BURRELL – We’re hearing more about our “exhausted majorityâ€Â – the two-thirds of Americans who are tired of the polarization and anger that surround us, are flexible in their attitudes, and want a way out of the divide.
Wet’suwet’en Water Protectors Vow to Continue Struggle after Announcing Strategic Retreat
ANISH R M – In the face of another crackdown by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), anti-pipeline Wet’suwet’en protesters have retreated from Coyote Camp. In an announcement on January 4, the activists of the Indigenous Wet’suwet’en tribe in British Columbia, Canada, have stated they are staging a “strategic retreat.†Water protectors who have been resisting the construction of the Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline and staging an occupation and blockade at the drill site near Camp Coyote have retreated to evade arrests and another violent police crackdown.
Should Fighting for Democracy Take Priority over Building Powerful Social Movements?
GEORGE LAKEY – Activists throughout history have put social movement work on hold for the electoral arena. Determining whether to do so is a matter of strategy and calling.
Whales: Nature’s Solution to Climate Change
RALPH CHAMI, SENA OZTOSUN, THOMAS COSIMANO, CONNEL FULLENKAMP – A strategy to protect whales can limit greenhouse gases and global warming.
Four Former Heads of Nuclear Agencies: “Nuclear is not a Practicable Means to Combat Climate Change”
DR. GREG JACZKO, PROF. WOLFGANG RENNEBERG, DR. BERNARD LAPONCHE, DR. PAUL DORFMAN – Nuclear is neither clean, safe or smart; but a very complex technology with the potential to cause significant harm. Nuclear isn’t cheap, but extremely costly. Perhaps most importantly nuclear is just not part of any feasible strategy that could counter climate change. To make a relevant contribution to global power generation, up to more than ten thousand new reactors would be required, depending on reactor design.
Putin’s Quid: No Offensive Missiles in ‘ABM’ Sites
RAY MCGOVERN – As senior U.S. and Russian negotiators begin talks early next week in Geneva, the makings of a first-step-in-the-right-direction deal are already at hand. And for this we can thank Presidents Joe Biden and Vladimir Putin for serious, attentive, one-to-one conversations in the past several weeks.
New Year’s Resolutions for the United States Suggested
JOHN MIKSAD – Many of us make resolutions at this time of year. These are some of the New Year’s Resolutions John Miksad would like to see his country make.
Nuclear Power’s Touted Reliability Fails in France
TSVETANA PARASKOVA – Europe’s energy crisis just got worse.
Seasonal Insomniacs in Times of Climate Chaos
RIVERA SUN – For the trees, snakes, and toads, these winter times are times of rest and dreaming. For humanity, these must be times of reckoning and change.Â