Activism

PETITION TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: WE URGE YOU TO CHANGE YOUR POLICIES, AND TO USE THE STATE OF THE UNION SPEECH TO RENOUNCE  INEQUALITY, MILITARISM AND ECOCIDE
January 12, 2016
Dear Mr. President,
 As friends and representatives of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance (NCNR), we are writing to request that you use the State of the Union speech to indicate you will do your best to change the direction of this country.  A real State of the Union would be a frank speech which would condemn our country’s addiction to economic inequality, racial injustice, warmongering and the destruction of our planet.  After being honest about our failures, you would then urge our elected officials to go in a new direction, based on a democratic ideal for we the people, and not for we the wealthy.   Tell them to listen to the people, and not the corporations.  You could inform them that you will utilize diplomacy and other peaceful means.  You could tell them to listen to the scientific community and not the fossil fuel industry.

 You could also state that you will immediately end the illegal and immoral killer drone program, and will never resort again to assassination as a foreign policy.  And most importantly, you would close down the Pentagon, the Department of War, and renounce nuclear weaponry.  Finally, you would pledge to save Mother Earth.  The Pentagon would become the Department of Peace with Justice, and its mission would be to shape the sustainable future.

 We write to you as people committed to nonviolent social change with a deep concern for a variety of issues that are all interrelated. Please heed our petition—end our government’s continuing wars and military incursions around the world and use these tax dollars as a solution to end growing poverty which is a plague throughout this country in which vast wealth is controlled by a tiny percentage of its citizens. Establish a living wage for all workers. Condemn forcefully the policy of mass incarceration, solitary confinement, and the rampant police violence. Pledging to end the addiction to militarism will have a positive effect on our planet's climate and habitat.  Should you show any interest in our demands, we would be available to assist in this process.

NCNR members have consistently participated in witnesses of nonviolent civil resistance calling on our government to take meaningful action to confront the climate crisis, the unending wars, the root causes of poverty, the bigotry and antipathy to African Americans, Muslims, and other minorities, and the structural violence of the military-security state. By listening to the millions of people at home and abroad your administration has recently taken laudable steps to avoid using military force with Iran and to reduce carbon emissions, but more significant action is still needed.

 Instead of the State Department, your administration uses the Pentagon to deal with conflict, and such behavior in concert with our allies greatly contributes to a violent and destabilized world. The U.S. use of armed drones by the military and the Central Intelligence Agency is inflicting enormous human suffering, is unconstitutional, and is only creating more “terrorists.” Your administration should cease its hostile rhetoric and sanctions against North Korea, Russia, and Iran. Furthermore, the US should seek a diplomatic solution to the civil war in Syria, disband NATO, and end the increasing military presence in Southeast Asia, commonly referred to as the "Asian Pivot," which threatens China. You must end all military aid to Egypt, Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the other countries in the Middle East. A new approach must be taken by your administration to free the Palestinians from over half a century of violent Israeli oppression. Diplomacy is the only answer to stop the cycle of violence. Regardless of whether noncombatants suffer or not, violence and war are not the answers to conflict. Diplomatic efforts to end the sanctions and hostile relations with Cuba are a good example of the positive path that can be taken and should be followed with other countries labeled as our enemies.

Nuclear weapons can never be used, and the plan to use a trillion tax dollars to “upgrade” the nuclear arsenal is madness. A study by the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, an independent think tank that works closely with the Pentagon, reports that the actual costs your administration plans for updating the nuclear triad — the intercontinental ballistic missiles, submarines and aircraft capable of delivering nuclear warheads – will cost one trillion dollars. This is beyond senselessly wasteful!  It is immoral and actually illegal under international law to possess such weapons capable of global annihilation thousands of times greater than the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. These tax dollars must be re-allocated towards reviving our sagging infrastructure and supporting social services desperately needed by the poor.  The tax dollars could also be utilized to assist former prisoners returning to their communities.

Almost half the people on this planet live off less than $2.50 a day and around 22,000 children die every day due to poverty according to UNICEF.  However, the U.S. has continued to expend half of the federal discretionary budget on warmongering.  Besides wasting tax dollars, the wars have resulted in untold numbers of lives lost, injured millions of refugees, and contributed to ecocide.

According to the National Center for Children in Poverty "More than 16 million children in the United States – 22% of all children – live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level – $23,550 a year for a family of four. Research shows that, on average, families need an income of about twice that level to cover basic expenses. Using this standard, 45% of children live in low-income families."

 Unending war and imperialism means rampant death and destruction.  Within the last 13 years, we have experienced how the United States has responded to international crisis with violence.  Our government has waged wars in violation of international law.   The failed Middle East policy leaves a whole region mired in violence and instability including an enormous refugee crisis. The continuing support for Israel’s apartheid state and oppression of the Palestinian people must end.  Furthermore, so many continue to be victimized by killer drones or are tortured and illegally detained now. We welcome the long overdue release in 2015 of some prisoners from Guantanamo but you must follow through on your promise to close this shameful illegal detention camp which has come to represent the racism and structural violence of the American empire.  Even in this country, solitary confinement and mass incarceration is the norm, and undocumented immigrants, who have fled strife and poverty caused by international economic agreements, are held for long periods of time before being deported back into the poverty and instability they desperately tried to escape.

 Our disregard for the causes of climate chaos is leading to the destruction of the planet.  Being controlled, in part, by the fossil fuel industry, our government has not been willing to sign onto international treaties to end climate chaos.  In the article “Greenwashing the Pentagon”, Joseph Nevins states, “The U.S. military is the world’s single biggest consumer of fossil fuels, and the single entity most responsible for destabilizing the Earth’s climate.”

  We believe that another way is possible and that there are alternatives to the life threatening policies that our government has promoted and that have been so destructive to Mother Earth and the people of the world.

Use the State of the Union as a platform to renounce the past and to promote necessary and positive social change. Unless our elected officials take immediate and significant actions, Mother Earth is doomed.
 
Please sign onto this petition by emailing malachykilbride@yahoo.com


CALL TO ACTION TO DECLARE THE REAL STATE OF THE UNION – JAN. 12, 2016

Guided by conscience, reason, and deeply held convictions, the National Campaign for Nonvi...olent Resistance calls upon all people of good will to come to Washington, DC on Tuesday January 12, 2016 to actively participate in a witness of nonviolent civil resistance, challenging President Barack Obama and the United States Congress to address the real state of the union, to immediately stop all U.S. acts of war, and to make significant changes that will put the people of the United States on the path to acting cooperatively with all in the world so that we can all live together in a world of peace, sharing our resources fairly.

The president will deliver his State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress on that day and tragically for the world, without a doubt, his presentation will once again be a threadbare act of political theatre with no relevance to the masses of people here in the United States or around the world. The escalating violence and tyranny of an expanding American empire abroad is destabilizing the world. The US Congress is bought and paid for by corporations and a wealthy minority who believe that assertion of global military control is the only way to ensure their corporate success. Congress willingly rubber stamps empire’s ongoing wars, with U.S. citizens footing the bill, paying the trillions of dollars in military costs benefiting only the 1 percent while causing crippling injuries, deaths, extreme hardship and suffering for so much of the world. Congress is nothing more than a bipartisan betrayer of the people. The ongoing wars for empire must end if humanity is to survive.

To be more specific, the perpetual wars waged by the U.S. are illegal, immoral, and enriching the wealthy financial corporate elites as millions within the U.S. lack basic needs, and billions around the world live in extreme poverty. We see how the wars and occupations abroad, fueled by fear and profit, have literally and figuratively turned inwards against the American people, impoverishing and imprisoning us. The US drone wars are directed at the poorest and least powerful in places like Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries around the world. The people of Syria are now experiencing the US neocon strategy to "redraw the map of the Middle East", greatly exacerbating the international refugee crisis. The region is further threatened by the continued oppression and persecution of the Palestinians with US consent and complicity. The ultimate weapon in the U.S. arsenal still poses a serious danger to all on this planet and all these weapons must be eliminated by all countries which control them.

Furthermore, the racist nature of empire with its structures of violence and oppression are directed at all of us. Islamophobia, racism, police violence, and the growing security surveillance state must be resisted to protect the liberty of all. From schools to the prison industrial complex with mass incarceration and solitary confinement at home, to Guantanamo and other sites of indefinite detention and torture abroad, we are all caught up in the empire’s systemic violence threatening the freedom of all. Undocumented people, victims of US economic trade deals and support of oppressive governments, are rounded up, held in for-profit jails for extended periods of time before deportation. The empire’s short-sighted thirst for profit, strategic domination, control of fossil fuels and other natural resources are leading us to more war and destruction of earth’s habitat and climate. We must actively resist and oppose the racism and violence of empire! We must save Mother Earth! Our resources must be directed away from the war machine and used for peaceful purposes, placing people over profit, with the goal as nothing less than saving of all life on our planet.

We urge those who are not able to be in Washington on January 12 to organize actions locally. We especially encourage those who are already speaking out against drones across the country to consider a simultaneous action. We support our friends in California who are already working on an action there. For information on the actions at Creech and Beale, contact mailto:smallworldradio@outlook.com
Join us in the streets of Washington, D.C., on January 12, 2016 as we all present our message on the real State of the Union to President Obama and the Congress.

For more information or to get involved contact: malachykilbride@yahoo.com joyfirst5@gmail.com or mobuszewski@verizon.net

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

A federal court has ruled that the Enbridge Alberta Clipper (Line 67) cross-border tar sands pipeline expansion project, permitted covertly and behind closed doors by the Obama Administration, got its greenlight in a legal manner. 

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

Final exams and winter break loom large for students at Columbia University, but at the upper echelons of the university's administration, new calls for transparency about the funding of a university affiliated center are likely to create plenty of homework as well. 

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

The ongoing push to lift the ban on exports of U.S.-produced crude oil appears to be coming to a close, with Congress agreeing to a budget deal with a provision to end the decades-old embargo. 

By Jan Oberg, TFF co-founder and director, TFF PressInfo # 351
Lund, Sweden, December 10, 2015

On the day of the Nobel Peace Prize Award Ceremony at Oslo City Hall

Alfred Nobel decided to give one fifth of his fortune for a prize to promote disarmament and resolution of all conflicts through negotiations and legal means, never through violence. 

It should go to "champions of peace" - to reducing or abolishing standing armies, promoting peace congresses and creating fraternity between nations...  

Here is the full text of Nobel's will of 1895 here.

The Nobel Committee in Oslo has, over the years, awarded this prize to several people whose activities are in clear violation of those goals, even with a broader, updated interpretation. 

Can such a prize, with a so clearly stated goal, be changed to serve the opposite idea and be given again and again to recipients who promote arms races and believe in militarism and war?

This question will soon be answered, after Mairead Maguire, Jan Oberg, David Swanson, and Lay Down Your Arms took the case to the Stockholm District Court on Friday 4th of December 2015.

The specific case to be tested is the 2012 award to the European Union.

Here is the full text of the summons.

All other relevant information is available at the Nobel Peace Prize Watch.

Norwegian lawyer Fredrik Heffermehl and Jan Oberg took the initiative in 2007 to reclaim the Prize to its original purposes.

Since then Fredrik Heffermehl has done research on its history and decision-making processes. One of the main results is his internationally acclaimed 2010 book The Nobel Peace Prize: What Nobel Really Wanted, 239 pages. 

More information here.

By David Swanson

People in the United States want tighter gun laws within the United States. They probably can't be, and certainly aren't being, polled on the U.S. role as top weapons supplier to the world. You can't poll people on something they've never heard of.

People in the United States want more done to protect the environment. They have no clue that their government is politely destroying all hope for future human life at a nice conference in Paris. They've never heard that the U.S. military is the single biggest destroyer of the environment. These are topics you can't poll on.

People in the United States believe that ISIS is present within the United States trying to kill them. You can't poll them on what to do in the actual universe, because they're living in that one. In their la-la land they say the United States should wage more war on ISIS.

Even in an alternative universe in which ISIS members from Honduras have snuck Ebola into Planned Parenthood clinics, waging war on ISIS makes no sense. The war and the accompanying bigotry and hatred are the greatest gift ISIS could ask for. And it did ask for them. And the United States has obliged, helping ISIS's recruitment soar. Blowback isn't reduced by escalating. You can't use terrorism to eliminate terrorism.

But here's where the important delusions come in. More than a matter of immediate facts, good Americans suffer from a twisted worldview in which blowback is spontaneously generated by irrational subhuman urges in lesser races and religious groups, wars waged abroad by the United States don't hurt anyone -- other than evil beasts, the war on Iraq benefited Iraq, and wars can be made even better than normal by making them multicultural feminist environmentalist Geneva-Conventionized local efforts with dark-skinned inhabitants doing the dying but the United States doing the deciding.

Let's try a little context.

It is no more "defensive" now than it was in 2003 or any other year to bomb people's homes thousands of miles from your shores.

It is not an act of generosity -- except to the weapons makers -- to kill huge numbers of people for no good reason.

War is not a last resort, and imagining it is while cheering and pushing for it, is self-delusional in a very basic way, no matter how poorly informed you are.

As your World War II myths can probably be removed only with invasive surgery, just look at the past 70 years and find a war that worked on its own terms, that didn't produce more harm than it halted.

The politicians who lie to you about everything other than war, and the media that tries to bias you in disastrous directions on everything other than war, both do the exact same thing when it comes to war.

Two years ago you didn't want to join a war on Syria on the side of al Qaeda, but you didn't want to be bothered to really stop it, end the provision of arms and trainers, pull the CIA out, permit the world to negotiate peace. Now you want to join a war on Syria on the side of al Qaeda while simultaneously joining it on the side against al Qaeda under the new name ISIS.

Why? Because ISIS is evil, so evil you can't talk to them.

ISIS is a large and growing number of people. Do you intend to murder them all? Do you have any idea of the global storm of hatred and vengeance that doing so would unleash on the United States including from people within the United States who can't be kept out by some idiotic walls? Because if you don't intend to murder them all, but only some of them (generating more of them than you kill), then you're going to have to talk with those who survive.

I'm not even asking you to talk to them. I'm asking you to stop making matters worse. Stop bombing. Stop shooting. Stop flooding the region with weapons. Stop supporting governments that fund ISIS. Protect people at risk with actual defensive protection if needed, but don't use them as excuses for escalated war. Send in aid and peaceworkers. Let professionals at conflict resolution speak to ISIS. Go back to television and shopping. Just stop telling pollsters you want more war.

Guided by conscience, reason, and deeply held convictions, the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance calls upon all people of good will to come to Washington, DC on Tuesday January 12, 2016 to actively participate in a witness of nonviolent civil resistance, challenging President Barack Obama and the  United States Congress to address the real state of the union, to immediately stop all U.S. acts of war, and to make significant changes that will put the people of the United States on the path to acting cooperatively with all in the world so that we can all live together in a world of peace, sharing our resources fairly.

The president will deliver his State of the Union speech to the U.S. Congress on that day and tragically for the world, without a doubt, his presentation will once again be a threadbare act of political theatre with no relevance to the masses of people here in the United States or around the world. The escalating violence and tyranny of an expanding American empire abroad is destabilizing the world. The US Congress is bought and paid for by corporations and a wealthy minority who believe that assertion of global military control is the only way to ensure their corporate success. Congress willingly rubber stamps empire’s ongoing wars, with U.S. citizens  footing the bill, paying the trillions of dollars in military costs benefiting only the 1 percent while causing crippling injuries, deaths, extreme hardship and suffering for so much of the world. Congress is nothing more than a bipartisan betrayer of the people. The ongoing wars for empire must end if humanity is to survive.

To be more specific, the perpetual wars waged by the U.S. are illegal, immoral, and enriching the wealthy financial corporate elites as millions within the U.S. lack basic needs, and billions around the world live in extreme poverty. We see how the wars and occupations abroad, fueled by fear and profit, have literally and figuratively turned inwards against the American people, impoverishing and imprisoning us. The US drone wars are directed at the poorest and least powerful in places like Somalia, Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iraq, and other countries around the world. The people of Syria are now experiencing the US neocon strategy to "redraw the map of the Middle East", greatly exacerbating the international refugee crisis. The region is further threatened by the continued oppression and persecution of the Palestinians with US consent and complicity. The ultimate weapon in the U.S. arsenal still poses a serious danger to all on this planet and all these weapons must be eliminated by all countries which control them.

Furthermore, the racist nature of empire with its structures of violence and oppression are directed at all of us.  Islamophobia, racism, police violence, and the growing security surveillance state must be resisted to protect the liberty of all. From schools to the prison industrial complex with mass incarceration and solitary confinement at home, to Guantanamo and other sites of indefinite detention and torture abroad, we are all caught up in the empire’s systemic violence threatening the freedom of all. Undocumented people, victims of US economic trade deals and support of oppressive governments, are rounded up, held in for-profit jails for extended periods of time before deportation. The empire’s short-sighted thirst for profit, strategic domination, control of fossil fuels and other natural resources are leading us to more war and destruction of earth’s habitat and climate. We must actively resist and oppose the racism and violence of empire! We must save Mother Earth!  Our resources must be directed away from the war machine and used for peaceful purposes, placing people over profit, with the goal as nothing less than saving of all life on our planet.

We urge those who are not able to be in Washington on January 12 to organize actions locally. We especially encourage those who are already speaking out against drones across the country to consider a simultaneous action. We support our friends in California who are already working on an action there. For information on the actions at Creech and Beale, contact mailto:smallworldradio@outlook.com

Join us in the streets of Washington, D.C., on January 12, 2016 as we all present ourmessage on the real State of the Union to President Obama and the Congress.

For more information or to get involved contact: malachykilbride@yahoo.com   joyfirst5@gmail.com   or mobuszewski@verizon.net

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

By Linn Washington, Jr.

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel made a bold yet belated move when he fired his embattled police superintendent in the wake of a national uproar surrounding the release of a chilling video that captured the police killing of a teen--a ward of the city of Chicago.

The world is wracked with shock, anger, and a deep sadness following the attacks in Paris last week.  No one should go through that kind of horror and have their lives destroyed.  We grieve with France over the loss of life and over the terror that has gripped the nation. 

However, living with that kind of fear is the constant reality for many people in the Middle East with drones flying overhead and with soldiers and mercenaries occupying the land.  I think about the mothers and fathers, children, grandparents, brothers and sisters, people living in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, and Yemen whose lives are no more than “collateral damage” to the US government, people who are being murdered with total disregard for their humanity.  We must also grieve for them and not let them be forgotten.

We have known for a long time that our government’s drone warfare program in the Middle East is both immoral and illegal, but the release of the Drone Papers several weeks ago confirms what we already knew.  This was a ground-breaking months-long investigation using U.S. government intelligence documents leaked by an anonymous whistleblower from the intelligence community.  The report provided chilling insight into the US drone program that is responsible for death and destruction.  The report gives us details that support the dismantling of this program that is the best recruitment tool ever for Al-Queda and ISIS.

The Drone Papers provide documentation showing that, through the use of unreliable data using cell phones and other electronic devices to provide target location, nearly 90% of the people killed in airstrikes were not the intended victims.  However the Obama administration masks the true number of civilians killed in drone strikes by categorizing unidentified people killed in a strike as enemies, even if they were not the targets.  The people who are being murdered by our government have names and people who love them and miss them, and almost all of them are peacefully living their lives when they are struck down by a missile from a drone.

How many innocent people must die in France, in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in Syria, in the US, and other places around the world before we learn that violence only creates more violence, before we realize that the US government’s “War on Terror” is failing miserably, before we understand that we are all in this together, and the only way we will survive is by working together to create peace?

Martin Luther King, Jr. was so clear when he declared:

The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy, instead of diminishing evil, it multiplies it. Through violence you may murder the liar, but you cannot murder the lie, nor establish the truth. Through violence you may murder the hater, but you do not murder hate. In fact, violence merely increases hate.

Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.

Arming some groups and bombing others in the Middle East is doing nothing but creating more organizations that become radicalized and want to strike out against us because we are killing their people.  We must call for an immediate stop to all U.S./NATO air attacks in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan and stop all U.S./NATO support for Saudi air attacks in Yemen.

We must also call for an immediate stop to all U.S. "targeted killing" actions globally, including drone surveillance and drone assassinations.

We must provide entry and refuge for those fleeing the wars in the Middle East.  The people who are fleeing the Middle East are mothers and fathers who want their children to have a chance at a good life.  They are running away from the same people who organized the attacks in Paris.  Governor Walker is so wrong in saying that he will not let refugees into the state.  His comments are racist, hateful, prejudicial, and are not based in kind of reality.

Our voices must spring up across the world demanding an end to violence, hatred, and killing.  We must call for new solutions, working together, providing support to those who need it, and creating a lasting peace to this world where we are all connected, where we are one human family.

Joy First, PhD,  Mount Horeb, WI, is a long-time peace activist and a member of the National Campaign for Nonviolent Resistance and Wisconsin Coalition to Ground the Drones and End the Wars.  She engages in nonviolent civil resistance to call attention to and bring an end to the crimes of the government. 

By John Grant

[Al Qaeda’s] strategic objective has always been ... the overthrow of the House of Saud. In pursuing that regional goal, however, it has been drawn into a worldwide conflict with American power.

By Ann Wright

A 26 person delegation from the All Okinawa Council will be in Washington, DC November 19 and 20 to ask members of the U.S. Congress to use their power to stop the construction of runway for the U.S. Marine base at Henoko into the pristine waters of the South China Sea.

The delegation is concerned about the environmental impact of the new facilities, including a runway to be built into the coral areas and natural habitat of the marine mammal, the dugong and the continued militarization of their island. Over 90% of all U.S. military bases in Japan are located in Okinawa.

The Henoko construction plan faces substantial opposition from the people of Okinawa.  Protests of 35,000 citizens, Including many senior citizens, against the construction of the base have rocked the island.  

The issue of the Henoko relocation plan has taken a critical turn. On October 13th, 2015, Okinawa’s new Governor Takshi Onaga revoked the land reclamation approval for the Henoko base construction, which was granted by the previous governor in December 2013. 

 The All Okinawa Council is a civil society organization, consisting of members of civil society organizations/groups, local assemblies, local communities, and business establishments.

Members of the delegation will have meetings with several Congresspersons and staffers on November 19 and 20 and will hold a briefing in the U.S. House of Representatives in Rayburn building room 2226 at 3pm on Thursday, November 19. The briefing is open to the public.

At 6pm on Thursday, November 19, the delegation will host a showing of the documentary “Okinawa: The Afterburn” at the Brookland Busboys and Poets, 625 Monroe St., NE, Washington, DC 20017. 

The film is a comprehensive picture of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa and the 70-year occupation of the island by the US military.

On Friday, November 20, the delegation will hold a rally at the White House at noon and asks for support from local organizations opposed to expansion of U.S. military bases around the world.

The Henoko base construction in Okinawa would be the second base in Asia and the Pacific to be used by US military that has faced enormous citizen outrage as both bases will destroy environmentally sensitive areas and increase the militarization of their countries.  The construction of the South Korean naval base on Jeju Island that will homeport ships carrying the US Aegis missiles has caused massive citizen protests.  

About the Author:  Ann Wright served 29 years in the US Army/Army Reserves and retired as a Colonel.  She was a US diplomat for 16 years and resigned in 2003 in opposition to the Iraq war.  She has travelled to both Okinawa and Jeju Island to speak on U.S. military bases and sexual assault by US military members on women in the local communities.

Cross-Posted from DeSmogBlog

TransCanada, the owner of the recently-nixed northern leg of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline, has won a bid from Mexico's government to build a 155-mile pipeline carrying gas from hydraulic fracturing ("fracking") in the United States to Mexico's electricity grid. 

Please buy it online that day. Learn more.

https://soundcloud.com/davidcnswanson/talk-nation-radio-laurence-shoup-on-the-power-of-the-council-on-foreign-relations 

Laurence H. Shoup has taught U.S. history at the university level and has been a historical consultant on California history for over 30 years, authoring or co-authoring over 200 reports for a variety of clients. His new book which we discuss is Wall Street's Think Tank: The Council on Foreign Relations and the Empire of Neoliberal Geopolitics, 1976-2014. Among his past books is Imperial Brain Trust: The Council on Foreign Relations and United States Foreign Policy. Find Shoup at http://rulersandrebels.com

Total run time: 29:00

Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Music by Duke Ellington.

Download from LetsTryDemocracy or Archive.

Pacifica stations can also download from AudioPort.

Syndicated by Pacifica Network.

Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!

Please embed the SoundCloud audio on your own website!

Past Talk Nation Radio shows are all available free and complete at
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By Linn Washington, Jr.

Protests against rampant police brutality occurred recently in the respective capitals of France and the United States – two nations that proclaim strict fidelity to the rule of law yet two professed democracy-loving nations where officials routinely condone rampant lawlessness by law enforcers.

By Alfredo Lopez

As expected, the European Union court has thrown out an agreement, forged in 2000, that allows virtually uninhibited data sharing and transfer between the United States and EU countries and is the legal basis for National Security Agency's on-line surveillance and data capture programs.

I was part of a debate on Tuesday that involved a larger disagreement than any exhibited at the Democratic presidential candidates debate that evening. A group of peace activists met with the president, a board member, some vice presidents, and a senior fellow of the so-called U.S. Institute of Peace, a U.S. government institution that spends tens of millions of public dollars every year on things tangentially related to peace (including promoting wars) but has yet to oppose a single U.S. war in its 30-year history.

(Photo of David Swanson and Nancy Lindborg by Alli McCracken.)

Without CNN’s Anderson Cooper there to steer us away from the issues into name calling and triviality, we dove right into the substance. The gap between the culture of peace activists and that of the U.S. Institute of “Peace” (USIP) is immense.

We had created and took the occasion to deliver a petition which you should sign if you haven’t, urging USIP to remove from its board prominent war mongers and members of the boards of weapons companies. The petition also recommends numerous ideas for useful projects USIP could work on. I blogged about this earlier here and here.

We showed up Tuesday at USIP’s fancy new building next to the Lincoln Memorial. Carved in the marble are the names of USIP’s sponsors, from Lockheed Martin on down through many of the major weapons and oil corporations.

At the meeting from the peace movement were Medea Benjamin, Kevin Zeese, Michaela Anang, Alli McCracken, and me. Representing USIP were President Nancy Lindborg, Acting Vice President Middle East and Africa Center Manal Omar, Director of Peace Funders Collaborative Steve Riskin, Board Member Joseph Eldridge, and Senior Policy Fellow Maria Stephan. They took 90 minutes or so to talk with us but seemed to have no interest in meeting any of our requests.

They claimed the Board was no impediment to anything they wanted to do, so there was no point in changing board members. They claimed to have already done some of the projects we proposed (and we look forward to seeing those details), yet they were uninterested in pursuing any of them.

When we proposed that they advocate against U.S. militarism in any number of possible ways, they replied with a couple of main justifications for not doing so. First, they claimed that if they did anything that displeased Congress, their funding would dry up. That’s likely true. Second, they claimed they could not advocate for or against anything at all. But that isn’t true. They’ve advocated for a no-fly zone in Syria, regime change in Syria, arming and training killers in Iraq and Syria, and (more peacefully) for upholding the nuclear agreement with Iran. They testify before Congress and in the media all the time, advocating for things left and right. I don’t care if they call such activities something other than advocacy, I’d just like to see them do more of what they’ve done on Iran and less of what they’ve done on Syria. And by law they are perfectly free to advocate even on legislation as long as a member of Congress asks them to.

When I had first communicated about our petition with USIP they had expressed interest in possibly working on one or more of the projects we proposed, possibly including reports we suggest in the petition that they write. When I asked about those report ideas on Tuesday, the reply was that they just didn’t have the staff. They have hundreds of staff, they said, but they’re all busy. They’ve made thousands of grants, they said, but couldn’t make one for anything like that.

What may help explain the array of excuses we were offered is another factor I haven’t yet touched on. USIP seems to actually believe in war. The president of USIP Nancy Lindborg had an odd response when I suggested that inviting Senator Tom Cotton to come speak at USIP on the need for a longer war on Afghanistan was a problem. She said USIP had to please Congress. OK, fine. Then she added that she believed there was room to disagree about exactly how we were going to make peace in Afghanistan, that there was more than one possible path to peace. Of course I didn’t think “we” were going to make peace in Afghanistan, I wanted “us” to get out of there and allow Afghans to start working on that problem. But I asked Lindborg if one of her possible paths to peace was through war. She asked me to define war. I said that war was the use of the U.S. military to kill people. She said that “non-combat troops” could be the answer. (I note that for all their non-combatting, people still just burned to death in a hospital.)

Syria brought out a similar perspective. While Lindborg claimed that USIP’s promotion of war on Syria had all been the unofficial work of one staffer, she described the war in Syria in a completely one-sided manner and asked what could be done about a brutal dictator like Assad killing people with “barrel bombs,” lamenting the lack of “action.” She believed the hospital bombing in Afghanistan would make President Obama even more reluctant to use force. (If this is reluctance, I’d hate to see eagerness!)

So what does USIP do if it doesn’t do war opposition? If it won’t oppose military spending? If it won’t encourage transition to peaceful industries? If there’s nothing it will risk its funding for, what is the good work it is protecting? Lindborg said that USIP spent its first decade creating the field of peace studies by developing the curriculum for it. I’m pretty sure that’s a bit anachronistic and exaggerated, but it would help explain the lack of war opposition in peace studies programs.

Since then, USIP has worked on the sorts of things taught in peace studies programs by funding groups on the ground in troubled countries. Somehow the troubled countries that get the greatest attention tend to be those like Syria that the U.S. government wants to overthrow, rather than those like Bahrain that the U.S. government wants to prop up. Still, there is plenty of good work funded. It’s just work that doesn’t too directly oppose U.S. militarism. And because the U.S. is the top arms supplier to the world and the top investor in and user of war in the world, and because it’s impossible to build peace under U.S. bombs, this work is severely limited.

The constraints that USIP is under or believes it is under or doesn’t mind being under (and enthusiasts for creating a “Department of Peace” should pay attention) are those created by a corrupt and militaristic Congress and White House. USIP openly said in our meeting that the root problem is corrupt elections. But when some section of the government does something less militaristic than some other section, such as negotiating the agreement with Iran, USIP can play a role. So our role, perhaps, is to nudge them toward playing that role as much as possible, as well as away from such outrages as promoting war in Syria (which it sounds like they may leave largely to their board members now).

When we discussed USIP’s board members and got nowhere, we suggested an advisory board that could include peace activists. That went nowhere. So we suggested that they create a liaison to the peace movement. USIP liked that idea. So, be prepared to liaise with the Institute. Please start by signing the petition.

165-MILE WALK FROM SYRACUSE TO NIAGARA FALLS

Oct. 7^th – 21^st, 2015

Oct 7, 2015: Undrone Upstate is a pro-peace, anti-drone demonstration and walk to educate the public on drone operations in the Western New York region.  The group will be walking about 165 miles from the Hancock Air National Guard Base, a national Reaper hub, to the Niagara Falls Air National Guard Base. Both bases are sites of drone operations, including training and remote piloting of drones over Afghanistan. The walk will include outreach programs at colleges and community centers along the way, including Rochester, Brockport, and Niagara Falls.

Kathy Kelly of Voices for Creative Nonviolence will speak at a kickoff event Sept 6 at 7pm at All Saints’ Church, 1340 Lancaster Avenue, Syracuse and join the walkers for the first few days.  Kathy has been to Afghanistan many times as a guest of the Afghan Peace Volunteers, joined other walks for peace and justice, and has been arrested protesting drone warfare outside of U.S. military bases.

Medea Benjamin of CodePink will join the walkers when they arrive for a rally at Niagara Falls Air Base.  (Details on website below)  Medea has written ‘Drone Warfare’, a book that clearly describes the disturbing issues that surround drone warfare.   CodePink has facilitated anti-drone conferences in Washington DC and CodePink members are a regular force at drone protests at Creech Airforce Base in Nevada.   

Targeted drone assassination is Obama’s favored weapon against "global terrorism." Outdoor markets, wedding parties, and village meetings have all been subjected to drone attacks, carried out on secret evidence and with little regard for human bystanders. The Department of Defense plans to increase its use of drones by 50 percent over the next four years.

The purpose of the walk is to heighten public awareness of the mindless murder and relentless terror perpetrated in our names by the criminal use of killer drones on terror suspects. Members of Upstate Drone action were among the first to investigate drone warfare and actively begin protesting this illegal and immoral campaign.  

 For details of events associated with the Undrone Upstate walk,  go to upstatedroneaction.org/unup-itinerary.html, or go to the Undrone Upstate Facebook page.

Stop Drones Surveillance & Killing

No Missile Defense

No to NATO

End Corporate Domination of Foreign/Military Policy

Convert the Military Industrial Complex

Deal with climate change and global poverty

List in formation

• Augusta, Maine (Oct 9) Augusta Women in Black vigil from 12:30 to 1:00 PM in front of Lithgow Library.  rleisnerrfm@yahoo.com

• Bath Iron Works, Maine (Oct 3) Vigil across from administration building on Washington Street (Navy Aegis destroyers outfitted with “missile defense” systems built at BIW) 11:30-12:30 am   Smilin’ Trees Disarmament Farm (207) 763-4062

·     Boryong, South Korea (Oct 4)   No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Chongju, South Korea (Oct 7)   At Bus terminal.  No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

• USAF Croughton, England (Oct 3) National March & Rally at U.S. satellite communication and intelligence base. (Space communications, drones, bomber guidance, missile defence and command & control functions.)  12.00 midday to 3:30 pm. Special guest Robb Johnson. Evening peace concert after rally at Friends Meeting House in Oxford at 7:00 pm.  Oxfordshire Peace Campaign, oxonpeace@yahoo.co.uk  

·     Daejeon, South Korea (Oct 6)   At Chungnam university, Mokwon Univ, Daejeon Univ.  No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Hancock Air Base to Niagara Falls, New York(Oct 7-21) The Upstate Drone Action Coalition is planning a 165-mile Walk Against Killer Drones, from Hancock Air Base to the Niagara Falls Air Base with stops along the way in Rochester and Brockport. The goal of the Walk is to heighten public awareness of the mindless murder and relentless terror perpetrated in our names by the escalating use of killer drones.  Please let us know ASAP that you or others you know will be joining us for all or part of the Walk. Contact Peg Gefell at 585-313-6674 or at peg.fink.gefell@gmail.com

• Janakpurdham, Nepal (Oct 5) Introductory/ interaction meeting about Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space and my experience of Okinawa, Kyoto and Hiroshima conferences. Social Development Path (SODEP) http://www.sodep.org.np/

·     Jeonju, South Korea (Oct 3)  At Jeonbuk University, Korean traditional village touring site.  No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest  only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net    

• Kemijärvi, Finland (Oct 3) Peace defenders will hold a street protest against drone testing and war training area where NATO is feared to be preparing for war with Russia.  kerstin.tuomala@pp.inet.fi

• King of Prussia, Pennsylvania (Oct 10) Noon, Demonstration and kite flying in front of Lockheed Martin (L-M) at intersection of Mall & Goddard Boulevards.   L-M is making a killing in drone war and surveillance technology, building the remote-controlled unmanned planes and satellites that direct the drones and launch their deadly Hellfire missiles which L-M also builds. For more info Brandywine Peace Community, (610) 544-1818 brandywine@juno.com  or www.brandywinepeace.com

• Kolkata, India (Oct 11) Public Meeting at Kolkata organised by Mrs. Arundhoti Roy Chouddhury (arundhoti@gmail.com). Global Network board member J. Narayana Rao to speak.

• Kyoto, Japan (Oct 3) Kyoto Coalition against the U.S. ‘missile defense’ X-band Radar Base in Ukawa village will hold indoor Rally at 14:00 pm. The venue is Higashiyama Ikiiki Shimin Katsudo Center. And then, we will march on central Kyoto. The march will starts on 17:00 pm.  kyogamisaki2013@yahoo.co.jp

• Largo, Florida (Oct 7) Demonstration from 4:30-5:30 PM at the Young-Rainey Star Center at the corner of Bryan Dairy and Belcher Roads in mid-Pinellas County, site of a Raytheon plant.  Raytheon was the fourth largest weapons contractor in the world in 2014, with sales of $10.2 billion, and is very active in drone production. sjstew@gte.net

• Maine Walk for Peace: Pentagon’s Impact on the Oceans (Oct 9-24) Join us in shedding light on the Militarization of the Seas as the US Navy (outfitted with missile defense and space-directed missiles) ramps up their global operations to encircle Russia & China. We will explore environment impacts of Navy on the oceans.  Walk from Ellsworth to Portsmouth, NH.  See flyer at www.vfpmaine.org

• Menwith Hill, England(Oct 6) Demonstration at U.S. NSA/NRO Spy Base in Yorkshire.  6-7:30 pm.   Sponsored by CAAB  mail@caab.corner.org.uk  or percy@phonecoop.coop

• Minneapolis, Minnesota (Oct 14) Bridge vigil at Lake St & Marshall Ave.  Twin Cities Peace Campaign.  Braun044@umn.edu

• Montrose, California (Oct 9)  We will call to Keep Space For Peace at our weekly Montrose Peace Vigil, Fridays 5:30 to 7:00 p.m., at Honolulu Ave. and Oceanview BLvd., in the Montrose Shopping Park. rmedford@ucla.edu

• Nagpur, India (Oct 3) Mass Rally at Motibalgh jointly by S.E.C. Rly Pensioners Assn and Pragatisjheel Railway Mahila Samaj. Coordinator J. Saraswati.  jnrao193636@gmail.com

·     Nagpur, India(Oct 3) Program on the dangers of weaponization of space at 11 AM to be held at the Women's College.  jnrao193636@gmail.com

·     Nagpur, India (Oct 3) Program on the dangers of weaponization of space at 2:00 with the students at the National Social Work College.  jnrao193636@gmail.com

·     Nagpur, India(Oct 4) Bernie Mayer (American Gandhi) will address a women's rally at 4:00 pm on how the masses can be attracted to struggle against space weaponisation through Gandhian technique.  jnrao193636@gmail.com

·     Nonsan, South Korea (Oct 5)   No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Pyongtaek, South Korea (Oct 8) At Railroad station.  No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Sacramento, California (Oct 7) No New Wars, No Killer Drones. Sac Veterans for Peace weekly vigil, 15th & L, Sacramento. 4 – 5 pm.  All welcome. FMI: 916-456-4595

·     Schriever Air Force Base, Colorado (Oct 7) Protest at Air Force Space Command’s Space Warfare Center and new joint interagency combined space operations center that will bring the civilian spooks from National Reconnaissance Office and National Security Agency together with military space agencies like Defense Information Systems Agency. bill.sulzman@gmail.com

·     Seongnam, South Korea Oct 9   (At traditional market) No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system  protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Seoul, South Korea (Oct 23) No to THAAD only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy protest rally when Security Meeting of US and S. Korea is being held. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

·     Suwon, South Korea Oct 10   No to THAAD ‘missile defense’ system protest only for the sake of US and Japan destroying peace and economy. Organized by SPARK spark946@hanmail.net

• Tucson, Arizona (Oct 6)Vigil at Raytheon Missile Systems. Join the Raytheon Peacemakers as we demonstrate against war and those who profit from it.  Survival demands better ideas, not better weapons.  Hermans Road entrance. (3rd traffic light south of Valencia on Nogales Highway, the extension of South 6th Avenue). Park off Nogales Highway, between railroad tracks and highway.  Signs provided, or bring your own!  More info: 520-323-8697.

·     Vandenberg AFB, California (Oct 7) Vigil in solidarity with "Keep Space for Peace Week" at the main gate of space warfare base from 3:45pm to 4:45pm. For info, contact Dennis Apel at (805) 878-2614.

·     Washington DC (Oct 5) Pentagon will hold "Keep Space for Peace" and "No Weapons in Space" signs during Dorothy Day Catholic Worker weekly peace vigil. 7-8 AM artlaffin@hotmail.com

·     Washington DC (Oct 9) White House will hold "Keep Space for Peace" and "No Weapons in Space" signs during Dorothy Day Catholic Worker weekly peace vigil. Noon-1:00 PM  artlaffin@hotmail.com

-        Keep Space for Peace Week is co-sponsored by the Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom

Resources:

·        Download our full-size space week poster at: 
http://www.space4peace.org/actions/Keep%20Space%20for%20Peacer%20Poster%202015.pdf

Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/  (blog)

By Joy First

The voices of the people are not being heard as we are increasingly denied access to our government officials.  For many, we have wanted to believe that we live in some kind of representative democracy where we can express our views to those we elect and it will make a difference, but that is not the case.

A study published in the academic journal Perspectives on Politics found the majority of the American public has a “minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy” compared to the wealthy. 

SOWING THE SEEDS OF HOPE: FROM CONGRESS TO THE WHITE HOUSE

Join us at an event organized by the National Campaign of Nonviolent Resistance in Washington, D.C. on Tuesday, September 22, 2015

Part of a week of actions with Campaign Nonviolence.

CONGRESS

Meet in cafeteria in Longworth House Office Building at 9:00 am.

Together we will go to Paul Ryan's office at about 10:00 am.

Bring packets of seeds and photos or news articles of issues you would like to address i.e. war, climate crisis, poverty, institutionalized violence etc.

Leave Ryan's office around 11:00 or 11:15.

Take public transportation to Edward R. Murrow Park – 1800 block of Pennsylvania Ave. NW

12:00 Noon RALLY AT THE PARK

WHITE HOUSE

We will proceed together from the park to the White House.

We'll hear speakers at the White House, read a letter sent to Obama, and some will protest even at risk of arrest but others need not do so.

Sign up here: https://www.facebook.com/events/1681885392045454/