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Outreach ideas for hard, scary issues

October 30, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It is hard to inform and mobilize the public about hard, scary issues such as nuclear weapons, the climate crisis, and Trumpism’s escalating fascism. Typically, we throw facts at people, but people too fearful and powerless to open themselves up psychologically to hear those facts, let alone act upon them. The document I wrote and linked below  can help the public empower themselves to work on serious issues, including the hardest and most  frightening issues. In order to really engage the public on these hard and frightening issues, we must deliberately strategize how to address the public’s fears, feelings of […]

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De-Militarize U.S. Foreign Policy

October 28, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

In 2016 I created a workshop to help people understand the U.S.’s violent foreign policy and see how we might de-militarize it.  I created a handout for people to use during the workshop, and so people anywhere at any time can walk themselves through the process. Here is a link so you can do that:  De-Militarize U.S. Foreign Policy — WORKSHOP Handout for Participants and Others    

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Trump provokes NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE AND WAR by pulling out of the 1987 INF treaty that Reagan + Gorbachev signed.

October 23, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Since 1987 the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty has reduced tensions between the U.S. and Russia and allowed both nations to reduce the danger of nuclear war. Trump pulled out of the INF treaty, so a NEW NUCLEAR ARMS RACE IS LIKELY — and Trump has INCREASED THE LIKELIHOOD OF NUCLEAR WAR. Both the U.S. and Russia want to build new, destabilizing nuclear weapons that are likely to make it more likely for a nuclear war to begin, either intentionally or by mistake or miscalculation or accident. Here are several good sources of information.  We must push Congress hard to […]

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U.S. govt’s “best and brightest” keep pushing us into unwinnable wars

September 22, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For many decades U.S. foreign policy has been bi-partisan, reflecting the needs of U.S. business corporations around the world, and grounded in the myth of “entitlement” and “U.S. Exceptionalism,” the notions that the U.S. is unique in history in being the world’s ultimate savior, and therefore not bound by international law, and not subject to the constraints and realities that have confined other nations that were not the one Beacon of Liberty to save the world. The elite people who have shaped U.S. foreign policy for many decades share those assumptions, even if they have educations from elite universities and […]

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Stop the government from wasting $1.7 TRILLION on new nuclear weapons

August 14, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

• Nuclear weapons are horribly expensive. The U.S. government is planning to spend $1.7 TRILLION over the next 30 years to replace all of our nuclear bombs, missiles, submarines, etc., with brand new ones, including some designed to be more “usable.” To pay for them, Congress will want to cut many billions of dollars from useful pro-grams that help people. • On October 31, 2017, the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimated that the Obama Administration’s 2017 plans for nuclear forces would cost $1.2 trillion (in 2017 dollars) over the 2017–2046 period. Other expert sources have estimated even higher amounts. Trump […]

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Democrats fail to satisfy their voters, but Republicans do.

August 9, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Democrats say nice things but almost none of them follow through if elected, so Democrats are not the answer. Republicans are more ignorant and more corrupt, but at least Republicans “deliver” to their “political base.” From that standpoint, Trump has been fantastically effective as a politician. He has vigorously delivered to racists, sexists, oil companies, big business, polluters, and right-wing religious extremists. For many years in the past several decades Democrats had held the Presidency and both houses of Congress.  Just imagine if Democrats had acted as boldly as the Republicans are doing now.  Just imagine if Democrats had really […]

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Stop the Endless Wars. Repeal the 2001 AUMF.

July 27, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

For decades the Cold War allowed our nation’s militarists — and the weapons manufacturing corporations that fund them — to stampede the U.S. media and politicians and public into decades of recklessly wasteful military spending, including several wars and proxy wars and thousands of nuclear weapons.  They said that this is Priority #1, so we could not afford bold efforts to end poverty, take care of the environment, or do other crucial work. When the Cold War ended, those same vested interests — our nation’s militarists and the weapons manufacturers — and conservative elements that opposed solving our nation’s social […]

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U.S. govt’s official thinking about nuclear weapons: Utterly Bizarre and Bi-Partisan

July 21, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Do you remember “With enough shovels …”? President Reagan’s Deputy Under Secretary of Defense for Strategic and Theater Nuclear Forces was T.K. Jones.  He believed we could easily survive nuclear war.  Here is what he said we should do if a nuclear attack was coming: “Dig a hole, cover it with a couple of doors and then throw three feet of dirt on top….  It’s the dirt that does it … if there are enough shovels to go around, everybody’s going to make it.” This is utterly preposterous on several grounds, including: If you are in the little hole you […]

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9 Ways Authoritarianism Is Taking Hold Under Trump

May 31, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

As you know, I read a huge amount of information.  Thom Hartmann’s article at the link below consolidates much solid information into CRUCIALLY IMPORTANT information that the American people need to understand. Trump and Trumpism are imposing horrible authoritarianism upon the U.S.  This is an extremely serious — actually existential — danger to American freedom and constitutional democracy. Trump’s authoritarianism abuses many aspects of American society. The article below connects many of the issues we care about, including peace, social justice, environment/climate, economics, and so forth.  The article ends with a call for nonviolent organizing to rise up against Trump’s […]

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Since World War II ended, the U.S. President has gained nearly dictatorial control over foreign policy

May 26, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It was bad enough when previous presidents were in power. But after 9-11-2001, it has gotten worse. Congress passed the “Authorization to Use Military Force” (AUMF) and keeps supporting it. This is virtually a blank check for a president to make wars or do virtually anything anywhere if it is about “fighting terrorism.” Now Trump makes the AUMF’s implications even worse. The problem is THOROUGHLY BI-PARTISAN. Senators Corker and Kaine have introduced a bill that they say would tend to solve the problem. The article at the link below says their bill would NOT solve the problem. The article also […]

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How can we challenge this dominant but destructive economic assumption?

May 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Embedded very deeply in our American culture — and many other nations’ cultures too — is an assumption that is embedded so deeply that nobody recognizes it, let alone challenge it. The assumption is this:  It is OK if what I do kills people, so long as I’m making money from what I do. At the surface level — the explicit level — if you were to ask people whether it is moral to kill other people, they would say “no.” But below the surface — at the implicit level — our society tolerates behaviors that knowingly kill people because […]

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The U.S. Empire is BI-PARTISAN.

May 2, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

It’s easy to criticize the hawkish foreign policy that Trump and the Republicans are promoting.  Their gross cruelty causes some people to overlook the fact that Obama, Bill Clinton, and the Democrats have done similar things when they were in the White House and Congress. A year ago Courage to Resist (www.couragetoresist.org) published in its May 2017 newsletter an article (“Empire War Status” written on April 6, 2017, by Bob Meola, a member of Courage to Resist.  The information below includes some of his ideas and some of my own. He wrote: “A lot of people miss Barack Obama because […]

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Read Glen’s thorough report on converting to a peace economy

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

Throughout our nation’s history, we had occasional wars and then de-mobilized afterward. But after World War II we launched the Cold War and maintained a permanent war status. We also created a “permanent war economy.” Massive military spending year after year – decade after decade – since the 1940s – has distorted and disrupted the U.S. economy and hurt our society in many ways. Typically when we think of military spending, we think of the budget and the trade-offs between military spending and spending for better purposes.  However, far beyond such budgetary trade-offs, military spending causes systemic harm to our […]

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We must DEBUNK “the Myth of Redemptive Violence.”

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

U.S. culture has long perpetuated what has been called “The Myth of Redemptive Violence.” Look at the plots of movies about the Wild West, about cops & robbers, about spies, etc. Nearly every movie ends with a big shoot-out in which “the good guys” use violence to defeat “the bad guys.” The U.S. assumes that our military is “the good guys” and we can use violence to defeat “the bad guys” just like in the movies. The problem is that reality does not work that way. The U.S. LOST the wars in Vietnam, Afghanistan and Iraq. Violence is also PROFOUNDLY […]

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Trump’s 2018 “Nuclear Posture Review” document is reckless and frightening!

February 24, 2018 GlenAnderson 0

See links to articles about Trump’s 2018 “Nuclear Posture Review” document at the end of this information about it: On February 2, 2018, the Trump Administration released its Nuclear Posture Review (NPR), which lays out how the Trump Administration and its Pentagon (which wrote the document for Trump) understand the role of nuclear weapons. Previous Nuclear Posture Reviews were issued in 2010, 2002, and 1994. Trump’s 2018 NPR does significantly change U.S. policy regarding nuclear weapons. A significant break from Obama’s NPR (which stated that the U.S. would not use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear countries that had signed the Non-Proliferation […]