Month: September 2021

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Prevent Congress from drafting women!

September 29, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

In the past few years I have posted to my blog’s category about Military Service, Recruitment, the Draft, etc. some news about the danger that the military draft might be expanded to include (and oppress) women equally with men.  Instead of copying those links here, you can see those posts at that category of my blog. Here is what’s new now:   On September 3, 2021, the Quaker-based lobbying organization “Friends Committee on National Legislation” (www.fcnl.org) reported this: Amendment Approved to Include Women in Draft:  The House Armed Services Committee approved an amendment requiring women to register for the draft. […]

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Take several actions now to stop nuclear power

September 29, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

HERE IS THE FIRST ACTION: Click the link at the end of this article to prevent a new nuclear power plant from being built at Hanford, WA.  An environmental non-profit organization that protects the Columbia River (Columbia Riverkeeper www.columbiariverkeeper.org) sent this on September 29, 2021 (summarized here for brevity): A company, X-energy, wants to build more nuclear infrastructure—a small modular nuclear reactor—within a carve-out of the Hanford Nuclear Site. Bad idea. Period. Hanford is the most contaminated place in the Western Hemisphere. The U.S. government’s mission at Hanford: cleanup. More nuclear reactors run afoul of ongoing efforts to protect people […]

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Capitalist-owned electric utilities bribed Ohio’s powerful politicians on behalf of nuclear power plants

September 29, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Decades ago people were vigorously promoting nuclear power as if it were a nearly miraculous source of energy that was promised to be so cheap that utilities would simply give it away.  Supporters actually said it would be “too cheap to meter.” Instead, it turned out to be THE MOST HORRIBLY EXPENSIVE source of energy with HORRIBLE INEFFICIENCIES and HORRIBLE DANGERS and much corruption.  Recently some of Ohio’s top politicians were charged in criminal cases about their corruption.  Capitalist-owned utilities bribed powerful state-level politicians to do things to help their nuclear power businesses.  See 4 articles here: — Gigantic criminal […]

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Gun violence — including murder — is increasing now. Pass strong laws to reduce gun violence.

September 29, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

For many years I have been paying attention to the rates of gun violence, including murders.  The murder rate had been declining for several years, but just in the past few years MANY MORE murders have been occurring.  The highly publicized MASS MURDERS are only the tip of the iceberg of gun violence. Overwhelming majorities of voters DEMAND Congress pass strong laws, but too many members of Congress are refusing to do that — either because they support the gun lobby for ideological reasons, and/or because gun manufacturers and pro-gun groups are funding their election campaigns.  Republicans are MUCH more […]

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“Religious Freedom: What it Is – and What it Is Not”

September 26, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The October 2021 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” provides fresh information and insights into some controversies that have confused and misled many Americans about many matters, including our human rights and how our government functions. In a free society, people need to get along with each other – including people whose beliefs differ from each other – and we must protect fairness for all people.  This includes the relationships between religious beliefs and governments. During this interview an expert clarifies what religious freedom IS and what it is NOT.  We clear up confusion about the centuries-old American principle of “the […]

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The U.S.’s defeat in Afghanistan reveals the ongoing decline of U.S. empire.

September 25, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

For many decades, politicians have been telling the American people that the U.S. is the strongest nation on earth — the mighty protector of peace and democracy and human rights and freedom — and that our military is the strongest and most powerful. But we keep losing wars — including our losses to poor nations such as Vietnam and Afghanistan. The U.S. Empire is a sham — a “Potemkin Village” — but despite its gross ineffectiveness, both political parties vigorously fund more military violence. When the U.S. clearly lost its 20-year war in Afghanistan, several savvy persons wrote articles such […]

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Let’s add humor to our organizing movements in order to make more progress

September 25, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Most of our anti-nuclear organizing efforts rely upon hard facts (often scary, alarming facts).  But other methods (art, music, etc.) can reach people in deeper, more personal ways that hard facts can’t.  We do not use humor often enough.  It has great potential to cut through what is entrenched and open people up to see things in totally fresh ways.  We need such freshness in order to escape the deadening oppression that the nuclear arms race has imposed upon society. Let’s consider how we might use humor to reach out to the public, the media, and politicians, and the military-industrial […]

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Yes! Nature has legal rights! See this info about the growing movement asserting that rivers, forests, wildlife, etc. have legal rights!

September 25, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

On September 25, 2021, I posted some information about this.  Below this info from my original posting, I provide much more information. Very often, legal cases are dismissed because of lack of “standing.”  The “standing” concept is a legal matter about whether someone has actually been harmed by the abuse they want to challenge in court.  If the plaintiff has not been personally harmed, the case is thrown out.  Now in recent years a growing legal movement has been affirming the rights of Nature, so that rivers, forests, wildlife, etc., should be recognized as having “standing” and can sue to […]

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Nuclear power is horribly expensive and doomed to fail. See new info here.

September 25, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Here is an appallingly stupid example I had not heard of before. It is yet one more compelling piece of evidence that nuclear power is NOT a “low-carbon” alternative to fossil fuels.  Nuclear power is horribly expensive and NOT cost-effective. The article includes much more information that I had not previously known. I encourage people to read this article and share it with people who need to know the hard realities. https://www.counterpunch.org/2021/09/24/the-record-breaking-failures-of-nuclear-power/                

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Vietnam — What most people don’t know — And similarities to Afghanistan

September 25, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

When the U.S. was in the process of losing its 20-year war in Afghanistan – one of the poorest nations on earth – I kept thinking of similarities with the U.S.’s ongoing cruelty and violence and war crimes in Vietnam from the 1940s to 1975.  (Vietnam also was a very poor nation, but Vietnam’s people defeated the world’s most powerful military decades before Afghanistan did that to the U.S.) Mainstream U.S. news media have a very long record of kowtowing to U.S. foreign policy instead of reporting critical and true information.  Most schools’ history classes run behind schedule in the […]

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Info and legislation about de-criminalizing drugs

September 11, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

A few days ago I sent this message to Congress about smart ways to deal with the drug problems.  We must DE-CRIMINALIZE drug use and use public health strategies to help people.   Nixon’s “War on Drugs” was DESIGNED TO BE RACIST AND CRUEL — a way to score political points for DEMONIZING “THE OTHER.” The “War on Drugs” has been going on for HALF A CENTURY.  It has NOT solved problems.  Instead, it has – Seriously disrupted millions of people’s lives – Broken families apart – Promoted racial injustices – Filled our jails and prisons with people who need […]

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Insights into the horribly dysfunctional Republican Party

September 11, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The Republican Party used to be positioned at the somewhat conservative end of the mainstream political spectrum.  It tended to support business interests while the Democratic Party supported the working class.  Both parties wanted government to function.  But in recent years — especially with Ronald Reagan, Newt Gingrich, the Tea Party and Trump — the Republican Party has been AGGRESSIVELY DESTROYING the parts of the government that actually helped people and the environment, while AGGRESSIVELY MAKING EVERYTHING WORSE through corruption, cronyism, racism, sexism, and various kinds of oppression and brutality.  The Republican Party now actually OPPOSES DEMOCRACY and supported the […]

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This woman exposed a shocking irony …

September 11, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Betty Bowers publicly stated: “Texas doesn’t have a hotline if you see a man go into a kindergarten with an AR-15, but it does have a hotline if you see a woman go into a Planned Parenthood parking lot with her car.”   The Republican-dominated government of Texas does not seem to understand the irony — or appreciate women’s rights.                    

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Life sentences are horribly cruel and unjust in many ways

September 11, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

The “conventional wisdom” wants you to think that long prison sentences make the rest of us safe.  That is NOT true.  Long prison sentences — especially life sentences — are horribly cruel and unjust in many ways. An excellent source of information is The Sentencing Project, www.sentencingproject.org.  They conduct excellent quality research and advocacy to reduce and eliminate the gross injustices in criminal justice sentencing.  I have read their materials and donated financial support for many years. In April 2021 they reported this:  “One in seven people in prison — over 200,000 individuals — are serving a sentence of life […]

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The U.S.’s bullying of NATO is very dangerous for the whole world

September 9, 2021 GlenAnderson 0

Michael Klare’s smart article below lays out the context for the dangerous escalation of a new nuclear arms race: Dividing the World Into Opposing Camps Is the Road to Armageddon Washington aims to recast NATO in the image of the US military, with its focus on “great power competition” and a renewed arms race with Russia and China. By Michael T. Klare for The Nation https://www.thenation.com/article/world/new-cold-war-china/