Tom Hayden's Blog, page 7

Listen Yankee! Why Cuba Matters Book Tour

Invite Tom Hayden to speak in your town! 

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March 18, 2015 7:30 PM - Berkeley, California 

KPFA Presents Tom Hayden @ First Congressional Church 7:30PM with Gloria La Riva

March 19, 2015 6:30 PM - San Francisco, California 

Commonwealth Club of California Presents Tom Hayden: Why Cuba Matters

March 26, 2015 - Ann Arbor, Michigan 

TBD

March 29, 2015 3:00 PM - Detroit, Michigan 

Source Bookstore 

April 2, 2015 6:30 PM - Brentwood, CA 

Diesel Bookstore

April 8, 2015 - Laguna Beach, CA

Laguna Beach Democratic Club

April 11, 2015 11:15 AM - Malibu, CA

Malibu Democratic Club

April 18-19, 2015 - Los Angeles, CA 

Los Angeles Times Festival of Books 

April 29, 2015 7:00 PM - New York, New York

Barnes & Noble Union Square with Democracy Now's Juan Gonzalez

May 3, 2015 9:30 AM - Washington, D.C. (Takoma Park, Maryland)

Busboys & Poets in Takoma Park, Maryland

May 3, 2015 2:00 PM - Baltimore Maryland

The Enoch Pratt Library with The Ivy Bookstore

May 4, 2015 - Miami, Florida

Books & Books, Coral Gables

Can Brown Regulate Fracking in Kern?

Governor Jerry Brown' administration shut down twelve oil wells in the Central Valley this week amidst revelations that the carcinogen benzine has leaked into fracking waste water at seven hundred times higher than federal standards.

A Peace Movement Based on Justice

Read this Vietnam comic book by the young civil rights leader Julian Bond, published in 1967, and I believe you will realize that we still are in a fierce battle between memory and forgetting, between twisted history and true history. Then consider participating in the May 2 commemoration of the first days of the anti-war movement in 1965.

The Crazy "Rationality" of Chris Kyle's Murder

I was gripped emotionally by the Bradley Cooper's way of inhabiting the character of "American sniper" Chris Kyle. That's what Hollywood does. Then I remembered a young sniper friend of mine who, when asked what he did, said, "We shoot people and blow shit up." And when I asked him what he thought about the policies behind all the shooting, he simply answered, "that's for the big people above us to decide."

Taking Action Against Escalation in Iraq & Iran

PEACE AND JUSTICE ACTIVISTS SHOULD - AT THE VERY LEAST - SEND MESSAGES NOW TO CONGRESS AND TO 2016 CANDIDATES THAT THEY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF THE NEW IRAQ WAR TURNS INTO A QUAGMIRE AND THE DIPLOMATIC PROCESS WITH IRAN BREAKS DOWN.

The Cancers from Kern

Governor Jerry Brown long has rejected either a ban or a moratorium on fracking in California like those adopted in New York state and France, where citizen outcry has prevailed. Brown's alternative has been to beef up the state's regulatory apparatus with serious environmental scientists and additional staff, claiming the permitting and monitoring system will be the toughest in America. 

Hayden Statement on AUMF

PEACE, JUSTICE AND CLIMATE ACTIVISTS SHOULD - AT THE VERY LEAST - SEND MESSAGES NOW TO CONGRESS MEMBERS AND 2016 CANDIDATES FOR SENATE AND PRESIDENT THAT THEY WILL BE HELD ACCOUNTABLE IF THE WAR THEY VOTE FOR YEAR TURNS INTO A QUAGMIRE. AT THE SAME TIME, THE PEACE MOVEMENT SHOULD NOT SIT OUT THE FIGHT OVER A COMPROMISE WAR AUTHORIZATION BUT SEE THEMSELVES AS A HUMAN VOTING BARRIER AGAINST ANOTHER AMERICAN GROUND WAR. PEACE ADVOCATES SHOULD SPEAK OUT FOR DIPLOMACY FIRST, A NARROW AUTHORIZATION IF NECESSARY, AND A BAN ON AMERICAN GROUND TROOPS. THE GOAL SHOULD BE TO SLOW OR STOP THE ESCALATION.

Kern, The Mississippi of Fracking

[image error]The Four Corners, illuminated red, is the major U.S. hot spot for methane emissions in this map showing how much emissions varied from average background concentrations from 2003-2009. (Image: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Michigan, October 2014)When anti-fracking activists end their protest at Governor Jerry Brown's Oakland home on February 7, where will they turn next?

The governor is not likely (but never say never) to respond by issuing a moratorium on fracking, especially with only 15 state Senate votes in favor. With a 60 percent victory margin in November's election and bold new goals for renewable energy and greenhouse gas reductions, he may ignore the protests altogether.

Remembering Vietnam, Renewing Struggle

A commemoration and march on the 50th anniversary of the first national protest against the Vietnam War will be held over April 29- May 2 in Washington DC. The SDS-sponsored march on April 17, 1965, was the largest peace march in American history to that point, according to the historian Kirkpatrick Sale. It came during an American Spring of teach-ins on hundreds of campuses, the first draft resistance, and even larger protests that November.

Will Congress OK War Without Limits?

The Republican Congress is expected to take up an authorization bill for the war against ISIS even though the U.S. bombing and ground escalation campaign has been underway for months. The specter of the Islamic State has silenced Congressional criticism and marginalized anti-war voices on the outside. The looming question is whether an open-ended authorization will extend the War on Terror for years to come.