United States
Why the Treaty Banning Nuclear Weapons Makes a Difference
By Ward Wilson, historian and author of “5 Myths about Nuclear Weapons”. The Treaty for the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) goes into effect on January 22, 2021. Most Americans haven’t heard of it. It’s a treaty that prohibits the developing, testing, possessing, using, threatening to use, or storing of… »
Color, COVID and the Coup
President Donald Trump’s second impeachment was swift and decisive, just one week after he incited a violent white supremacist mob attack on the U.S. Capitol that left five dead, including a Capitol Police officer. Accounts of the insurrection from several elected Congresswomen of color capture the chaos of the moment,… »
Assange Remains in Prison in Spite of the Decision Not to Extradite Him
The decision not to release Julian Assange from prison on bail or on house arrest was taken today by the British court, on the grounds that he is a flight risk and that he should stay in prison until the USA had the possibility to appeal the decision not to extradite him… »
Trump Rightly Vetoes Pentagon Budget, for the Wrong Reasons
President Trump raised hackles in Congress last week with his veto of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). The Pentagon’s bloated budget is a $740 billion, 4500-page monstrosity that siphons vast amounts of the public’s scarce resources into what former Republican President Dwight Eisenhower called “the military industrial complex.” Trump’s… »
Trending Rights Tweets of 2020
Helicopters in the United States. Bullets in Nigeria. Security forces in Belarus. Water cannon in Thailand. Countries around the world sought to quash peaceful protest in 2020, before and after the pandemic, but people seeking freedom and demanding change took to the streets to defend their rights. #BlackLivesMatter trended across… »
Give Thanks to the Workers and Food to the Hungry
Lines. Lines at food pantries stretch block after block through urban neighborhoods. In suburban and rural America, lines of cars are miles long, as people suffering from hunger and food insecurity, many for the first time, wait hours for a box of groceries. Lines at COVID-19 testing sites grow, as… »
Ilhan Omar calls on Biden to reverse Trump’s deals with the Middle East
US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar has called America’s allies in the Gulf “dictators” and said that agreements between regional states and Israel are not “peace deals”. Omar made her comments in an article in The Nation. Calling on President-elect Joe Biden to reverse President Donald… »
Science, or nuclear fiction?
Biden-Harris must reject the nuclear path Although possibly a sad comment on his predecessors, incoming U.S. president, Joe Biden, is offering the most progressive climate policy so far of any who have previously held his position. As Paul Gipe points out in his recent… »
Beyond empires, the Universal Human Nation
The post-election landscape in the United States of America is an indecent spectacle. Once again the discrepancy between the discourse that propagates democratic values and actual political practice in that country is confirmed. Various analysts have pointed out on many occasions how little objective relevance there is of the election… »
Lost Causes, from the Confederacy to Trump
President Donald Trump has embarked on a lost cause akin to that embraced by Southerners after the Confederacy was crushed. That historical “Lost Cause” falsely posited that the U.S. Civil War was fought not to defend slavery, but, rather, to preserve states’ rights and their cherished Southern way of life. »