Glen's Parallax Perspectives

New resources about crucial nuclear weapons issues

July 11, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Lilly Adams from the new statewide coalition Washington Against Nuclear Weapons (www.wanwcoalition.org) provided this hot news: President Trump and President Putin will meet on July 16th to discuss a range of issues, including nuclear weapons policies and the New START Treaty. PSR has created a simple one-pager with background information and recommendations. Read it here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1j2lWpLCTvJiz2NIyR2SwIAf15wP48ct-Y8Ms_3HFWxQ/edit For more in-depth information, see the Arms Control Association’s resources here: https://www.armscontrol.org/pressroom/2018-06/trump-putin-summit-what-you-need-know The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons just published some fascinating and encouraging survey results from European “umbrella states” that host US nuclear weapons. Their findings: Europeans reject US nuclear […]

U.S. Militarism Promotes Gun Violence. To reduce gun violence here, reduce military violence worldwide.

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

“Climate deniers” refuse to acknowledge the human causes of the climate crisis. Likewise some people try to blame gun violence on far-fetched causes such as popular music or pornography, even though those are common in other rich nations with very little gun violence. Deeply embedded in U.S. culture is an excessive willingness to use military violence. The U.S. has a long history of mistakenly thinking that violence solves problems. The U.S. has started wars to dominate other nations, especially since the 1898 Spanish American War. In the past 120 years the U.S. military has overthrown dozens of nations. We have […]

Trump’s scheme to INCREASE gun sales to people in other countries

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

In July 2018 Trump proposed something that would INCREASE GUN VIOLENCE IN OTHER COUNTRIES. His proposal would INCREASE crime and terrorism and violence by oppressive governments. Trump proposes moving export license oversight for firearms from the Department of State to the Department of Commerce. This is not merely a benign reshuffling of bureaucratic functioning. It would create the illusion that firearms are just another commercial commodity for the Department of Commerce to rubber-stamp its approval in support of promoting exports from U.S. businesses. Actually, firearms are TOOLS OF VIOLENCE that criminals, terrorists and dictators use for violating other people’s human […]

Drug War: Bad news from Congress. Good news from Mexico.

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Starting with Nixon and ever since, the bi-partisan “War on Drugs” has been a political scheme to attack “hippies” and people of color. After the Nixon years it became a way to attack immigrants too. It was designed to promote fear, escalate oppressive policing, and take away people’s civil rights. Finally, some people — including fiscal conservatives who oppose the waste of money on an unworkable “big government” program — are calling for changes that reflect common sense. The “harm reduction” strategies are a great step forward. The Republican-dominated U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that purports to reduce […]

What “gaslighting” means — and how Trump uses it to confuse and dominate the U.S.

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

First, read a brief definition (but not too much detail) at Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gaslighting Then read these three articles and recognize how Trump is DELIBERATELY GASLIGHTING us: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/here-there-and-everywhere/201701/11-warning-signs-gaslighting https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article129199504.html https://www.cnn.com/2017/01/10/opinions/donald-trump-is-gaslighting-america-ghitis/index.html We need to recognize what Trump is doing. We need to devise strategies to inform the American people. We need to devise strategies to expose and resist Trump’s abuses.

Brett Kavanaugh Once Argued That a Sitting President Is Above the Law

July 10, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Trump is being investigated for a number of crimes, including felonies and other impeachable offenses. Trump is causing a constitutional crisis. Very likely the Trump mess will end up in the U.S. Supreme Court. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has become a very highly partisan tool of the Republican Party. (In 2000 it stopped the ballot counting in Florida and appointed George W. Bush president. It has seriously weakened the Voting Rights Act in order to allow racist schemes that allow Republican-dominated state governments to seriously weaken the right to vote among racial minorities and poor people. It has allowed Republican-dominated […]

Bi-Partisan Revulsion Against the Status Quo

July 2, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Across the political spectrum, voters are angry. Regardless of which party owns the President, voters are dissatisfied and VOTE FOR THE OTHER PARTY in the next congressional election. Consider this evidence: 2004: George W. Bush was reelected by a large margin, but in 2006 a large majority of voters chose Democrats for Congress and state offices. 2008: Barack Obama won a decisive victory, but in 2010 a large majority of voters chose Republicans for Congress and state offices. 2012: Barack Obama was re-elected by a big margin, but in 2014 voters chose Republicans for bigger majorities in Congress and state […]

To protect immigrants, let’s de-polarize the U.S.’s political culture.

June 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Many problems that are plaguing the U.S. are rooted in various kinds of polarizations. Oppressors use a “divide-and-conquer” strategy to disempower ordinary people so the oppressors can grab more power and enrich themselves financially. They polarize us by pitting race against race, religion against religion, straight people against LGBTQ people, and native-born people against immigrants. They also polarize us by emphasizing nationalism, so they pit nation against nation. They promote wars and nuclear weapons. All of these polarizations draw from the same roots. In order to protect immigrant rights — and all people’s rights — and in order to prevent […]

Great home-made signs from immigrant rights rally

June 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

On Saturday June 30 a huge crowd — certainly more than one thousand, and perhaps two thousand — attended the immigrant rights rally at the Washington State Capitol Building in Olympia WA. The initial focus was “Keep Families Together,” because the Trump regime has kidnapped more than 2,000 children (including toddlers and infants) from their immigrant parents because their parents had crossed the U.S. border without the necessary documentation. Trump was holding those children as HOSTAGES in order to pressure their parents to “self-deport” and pressure Congress to pass a cruel law against immigrants. The Trump regime has lost track […]

A very short video shows what a nuclear bomb could do

June 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

This video lasts only a very few minutes. But the message is clear. We must prevent nuclear weapons from ever being used. Click this link, scroll down a few paragraphs, and watch the very short video: http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/06/what-a-nuclear-attack-in-new-york-would-look-like.html

Powerful, compelling 2-minute video: Christians must help immigrants/refugees.

June 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

I encourage people to read and share this very short (just over 2 minutes) video by Jesuit Father Jim Martin affirming the moral imperative to welcome migrant children: https://nowthisnews.com/videos/politics/reverend-jim-martin-discusses-welcoming-migrant-children

Abolishing nuclear weapons would help immigrants’ rights.

June 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

To protect immigrants, STOP POLARIZING PEOPLE IN ANY WAY: Stop dividing people by nationality, race, religion, gender, sexual orientation, disability, economic class, etc. The problems we face are huge, deeply rooted and interconnected. Because these problems are linked, we can make progress toward solving any of the divisive problems by starting with any one of these problems and showing how it connects with the other problems. The problems already existed before Trump made them worse. Nationalism and racism polarize “us vs. them.” For more than 70 years nuclear weapons have expressed the nationalism that is one root of anti-immigrant feelings. […]

Trump will crash U.S. economy by committing to coal & oil instead of renewables

June 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For many decades, the huge outside wall of the Greyhound bus station in downtown Olympia WA has proudly proclaimed that bus travel is the modern way to travel in America. I always laugh. But Trump is even more ridiculous when he proposes coal as the modern future for the U.S. Trump is vigorously opposing solar, wind and other renewables. He is committing the U.S. economy to coal and oil as the future. Truly modern nations such China and all of Europe are promoting solar, wind and other renewables. Trump has hitched the U.S.’s economy to a dead horse. While the […]

“Base Public Policy on Honest Science”

June 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

The July 2018 episode of “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives” TV program helps us understand how science works. It also helps us push governments to use honest science as a basis for smart and wise public policies. Governments should make decisions based on what is actually true, not corrupted by financial greed or ideological pressures. To watch the interview, click this link: WATCH THE INTERVIEW HERE. To read the thorough summary of what we said in the interview — and see a list of excellent sources of information, click this link: 2018.07 Program Summary — SCIENCE. People in Thurston County who have […]

To Achieve Social Justice, We Must De-Polarize Our Society

June 17, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Oppressors often use a “divide-and-conquer” strategy to keep populations divided so the oppressors can dominate them. This has been happening in the U.S., as it has in other countries. The remedy is for people to recognize and expose the oppressors’ scheme — and to bring all demographic groups together to de-polarize our society. Unfortunately, some people who are oppressed buy into the polarization and get angry and vengeful against other demographic groups that have been set up by the oppressors as polar opposites. These people unwittingly serve the oppressors’ interests in keeping the population divided. The real remedy is to […]