People keep worrying about “national security.” But that is a dead end — and a misleading distraction — unless we understand that MILITARISM ITSELF IS THE PROBLEM and that our nation can be secure ONLY if we help the rest of the world to be secure in more profound ways than mere militarism can accomplish. See the insightful article I wrote at this link: Article on peace and true security
Ordinary people need to speak up now! Trump keeps destroying treaties that protect us from nuclear war. Trump seems opposed to the “New START” treaty that will expire in 2021, but Putin wants to renew it, so ordinary people need to push Trump to renewing it so we can reduce the worsening danger of nuclear war with Russia. Trump recently destroyed the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty that Reagan and Gorbachev had created in 1987 to stop certain kinds of very provocative nuclear weapons in Europe that would have recklessly increased the danger of nuclear war there. Now Trump […]
Nuclear weapons are a huge issue with several aspects that three knowledgeable guests explore in the DECEMBER 2019 TV program (PART 1) and the FEBRUARY 2020 TV program (PART 2) of the TV series, “Glen’s Parallax Perspectives.” YOU CAN WATCH THE PROGRAMS ON YOUR COMPUTER even if you don’t have cable TV. Cable TV subscribers in Thurston County WA can watch the highly informative interview three times a week (Mondays at 1:30 pm, Wednesdays at 5:00 pm, and Thursdays at 9:00 pm throughout the entire month of December 2019. Part 2 of this interview will air on the same schedule […]
Here is how democracy is supposed to work: People with their “ear to the ground” listen to what the voters want. They campaign for office with platforms promising to accomplish what the voters want. Most of the 2020 presidential candidates are NOT doing that. Several of the front-runners (Biden, Buttigieg, and other “centrists” — who are really conservatives) are running for President by INSISTING that voters can NOT have what they want!!! Voters want to get big money out of politics, but the national Democratic Party and the “centrists” fall short. Voters want HEALTH CARE FOR EVERYBODY, but the most […]
Today I posted information from February 7-8-9, 2019, when the Green New Deal resolutions were introduced in Congress. Those early posts explained why we need the Green New Deal. Cautious people (and opponents) will ask how to pay for it. Actually, progressives were ALREADY proposing ways to pay for it BEFORE the House and Senate resolutions were introduced. Here are some VERY EARLY articles that make good economic sense: Ellen Brown (perhaps our nation’s greatest expert on publicly owned banks) urges public banks as a way to fund a Green New Deal. Her December 2018 article at the following […]
Twice in late summer 2019 the Olympia Coalition to Abolish Nuclear Weapons organized and staffed information tables at public events. Six jars were labeled with different possible uses for our federal budget. We handed each visitor a stack of ten pennies and invited them to put the pennies into the various jars to show how the visitor would choose to spend the federal budget. The results (listed below) were similar for both events, except “Environment and climate” and “Health care” exchanged places for 1st and 2nd priorities. Military has rated lowest priority every time I have conducted this game over […]
The term “national security” is almost always ASSUMED to imply the need for more militarism, more fear of people in other countries, more willingness to fight wars, more military weapons, more military spending, and more nuclear weapons. That is a VERY NARROW channeling of our vision and our thinking. Really, our nation is NOT SECURE in many other ways. Our nation is NOT SECURE when: Many people are poor Many people are homeless Many people lack decent health care Many people feel alienated from society Many people are very angry Many people own guns that endanger themselves, their families and […]
Trump keeps screwing up. Trump keeps deceiving people. Everything he does is only for his own benefit. He fooled some people into thinking he was withdrawing troops from Syria as a matter of a principled peace policy. Actually, he was screwing our allies in his “America First” isolationism — except that he is really abusing our foreign and military policies in order to help his pals Erdogan (the brutal authoritarian who runs Turkey) and Putin (’nuff said!) and in order to pursue a war for oil in Northern Syria. See this: https://www.juancole.com/2019/10/province-kurdish-displacement.html No, Trump Isn’t Bringing US Troops Home […]
Chris Hedges keeps writing articles that are powerfully insightful and wise. His articles connect the dots across a number of issues. They are very much worth reading. Here is one from October 2019: https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-age-of-radical-evil/
Militarism is so pervasive throughout American society that it hurts many aspects of our nation, including democracy — and actually WEAKENS our nation! See this interesting and powerful article: https://www.nationofchange.org/2019/10/25/killing-me-softly-with-militarism/
Increasingly in recent decades the U.S. has been PROVOKING A NEW ARMS RACE IN SPACE, despite the treaty that prohibits militarizing “outer space.” Every October (in 2019 it’s October 5-12) an excellent non-profit organization organizes “Keep Space for Peace Week.” This “International Week of Protest to Stop the Militarization of Space” features activities in many locations in the U.S. and elsewhere. The Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space (www.space4peace.org) is very knowledgeable. Their blog (http://space4peace.blogspot.com/) has more information and help for people who want to organize to protect space for peace.
The Olympian published my newest op-ed. See this link: https://www.theolympian.com/opinion/op-ed/article235448132.html? Click to hide the ad so you can see my opening paragraph about public opinion polls.
Nuclear weapons are MUCH MORE than merely a “peace” issue. The new report shows that ANY use of nuclear weapons would cause extremely serious damage to our health, our environment and our climate. We must ELIMINATE NUCLEAR WEAPONS before they eliminate us! Physicians for Social Responsibility (www.psr.org) reports this: A groundbreaking new climate study shows just how urgent it is to prevent nuclear war and eliminate nuclear weapons before they eliminate us. “Rapidly expanding nuclear arsenals in Pakistan and India portend regional and global catastrophe,” published in Science Advances on October 2 by leading researchers Owen Brian Toon and […]
Despite the saber-rattling by the governments of the U.S. and South Korea and North Korea, the KOREAN PEOPLE — Both South and North — WANT PEACE! The Korean War (1950-1953) actually NEVER ENDED. The 1953 cease-fire is all we have. Mutual antagonisms and intermittent hawkishness from the U.S. government keep preventing real peace. When George W. Bush ginned up some propaganda for wars against Iraq and Iran he also said North Korea is part of an “Axis of Evil,” which is complete nonsense. Trump threatened to utterly destroy North Korea with nuclear weapons. For many decades the militaries of the […]
I am always encouraging people to envision and organize bold goals for a significantly better future. Recently I posted to my blog this article inviting us to do that: http://parallaxperspectives.org/lets-boldly-create-the-future-we-really-want-2 Now I invite you to take the next step. Please read (or re-read) that blog post and send me your e-mail suggestions for this topic: What bold, good reality would you want for four years from now — October 2023? Instead of feeling constrained by the current conditions that are bogging our nation down and curtailing our imaginations, I invite you to BOLDLY AND CREATIVELY IMAGINE the future you really […]
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