David Swanson's Blog, page 179
May 18, 2012
Bring on the Beautiful Trouble
Now here's a book that's meant to be used: "Beautiful Trouble: A Toolbox for Revolution" edited by Andrew Boyd and Dave Oswald Mitchell. The subtitle should be "Try this at home -- but innovate!" Instead it's "From the people who brought you the Yes Men, Billionaires Against Bush, etc."
May 16, 2012
Occupy Bilderberg
We protest the G-8 and NATO, but not Bilderberg. Why?
Do you have to be xenophobic, paranoid, isolationist, or libertarian to protest a secretive gathering of over 100 billionaires, industrialists, media barons, and politicians working to shape our public sphere, or has the left dropped the ball? Is it time for Occupy to step in?
From May 31 to June 3, 2012, at the Westfields Marriott Washington Dulles Hotel, in Chantilly, Va., the Bilderberg Group is expected to gather behind closed doors. This exclusive club will rent the entire hotel, encircle it with armed guards, and keep everyone far away, including the media -- except for those special members of the media who will take part but never report a word of what goes on.
Wikipedia calls Bilderberg: "an annual, unofficial, invitation-only conference of approximately 120 to 140 guests from North America and Western Europe, most of whom are people of influence. About one-third are from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications. Meetings are closed to the public."
Bilderberg calls itself: "leading citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that Western Europe and North America" who hold "regular, off-the-record discussions" of "common problems - from trade to jobs, from monetary policy to investment, from ecological challenges to the task of promoting international security. . . . There usually are about 120 participants of whom about two-thirds come from Europe and the balance from North America. About one-third is from government and politics, and two-thirds from finance, industry, labour, education and communications."
Does this group of "leading citizens" look representative of the people's interests?
Bilderberg says this was its agenda four years ago:
* Cyber-terrorism
* A Nuclear-Free World
* Managing Financial Turbulence
* US Foreign Policy Without Change
* How Serious Are the Threats on Our Economies
* Islam in Europe
* Africa
* Afghanistan, Challenge for the West
* Iran-Pakistan
* A Look at the Future
* The Mounting Threat of Protectionism
* Russia
* After Bush: The Future of US-EU Relations
* Current Affairs: US Elections
Scholars have credited Bilderberg with significant influence in all sorts of disastrous policies from NAFTA to the current push for war with Iran.
One analysis comes from Andrew Kakabadse, a management professor at the UK's Cranfield University:
"There is no conspiracy in Kakabadse's eyes, as Bilderberg has no formal influence whatsoever. 'On the other hand, it has the most tremendous influence since it shapes opinions at the highest levels. Bilderberg is for leaders what the annual medical conference is for doctors. In the latter, certain delegates are more active than others and at some stage the prevailing medical thinking is driven in one particular direction. These regular meetings shape the way the dominant medical theory and practice develops, to the point that the way things are going feels normal and nobody asks for the alternative to the dominant medical paradigms anymore.' The same can be said for world leadership, Kakabadse argues.
"British journalist Jon Ronson, who was invited to a conference by Bilderberg organisers, described the relationship between conference organisers and aspiring political leaders in attendance: 'They'll get an up-and-coming politician who they think may be president or prime minister one day, and as globalist industrialist leaders who believe that politics shouldn't be in the hands of politicians, they try and influence them with wise words in the corridors outside sessions.' Kakabadse calls this process 'smart power'. The shaping of the prevailing opinions amongst the world's leading decision-makers is 'so smart that people don't even know that they are being led', he says. 'In the end, they don't even realise that there are alternative questions to be asked.'"
Is this healthy for democracy?
Or is there a desperate need here for somebody to be mic checked?
Talk Nation Radio: Cindy Sheehan on the Venezuelan Constitution as a Model for the United States
Cindy Sheehan discusses the new Venezuelan Constitution as a model for reforming the U.S. Constitution in the direction of greater democratic and economic rights, as well as the politics of Hugo Chavez, and her new book, Revolution: A Love Story. Cindy Sheehan is a leading U.S. peace actvist, a gold star mother, an author, blogger, and radio host.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
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May 14, 2012
Forum in Richmond, Va. -- Peace Perspectives on Iran: Why Military Intervention is Not the Answer
Don’t miss the important forum, “Peace Perspectives on Iran: Why Military Intervention is Not the Answer,” scheduled to take place on Thursday, May 24.
The event will explore the roots of the current tensions and the risks and costs of war. It will also shed light on the negotiations between Iran and the west and identify pathways to genuine peace.
This discussion comes as the threat of war with Iran escalates, and the United States and other western powers tighten sanctions. The forum will be held one day after talks are scheduled to begin in Baghdad between Iran and six western powers.
A panel of speakers will address and challenge a number of myths about the “Iran crisis,” including widely repeated but incorrect claims that Iran has an active nuclear weapons program, that military strikes could achieve stated goals, and that Iran poses a direct threat to the United States. Speakers will also discuss Iranian perceptions of U.S. policy and its internal political dynamics, and examine Iran’s nuclear energy program.
“This event will be an antidote to fear-mongering,” says Richmond Peace Education Center director Adria Scharf, who will moderate the discussion. “The speakers will challenge common myths with facts and fresh perspectives.”
The panel includes local scholars Dr. Majid Amini and Dr. Michael Fischbach, and Charlottesville-based author and activist David Swanson.
Dr. Majid Amini is Professor of Philosophy at Virginia State University. He was born in Iran and comes from a family that has had extensive public and political participation in Iranian affairs since the turn of the 19th century. Currently he is working on two projects: one on the limits of religion in the public square and another on divine regret.
Dr. Michael Fischbach is Professor of History at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, Virginia. He received his doctorate in modern Middle Eastern history from Georgetown University. He researches issues relating to land and property ownership in the modern Middle East. Fischbach frequently addresses international conferences and the media, and has been a consultant for Middle Eastern negotiators as well as the Library of Congress, the United Nations Development Programme, and the International Development Research Center.
David Swanson is a nationally recognized author and peace activist. He currently works with Veterans for Peace and hosts Talk Nation Radio. His most recent books include The Military Industrial Complex at 50 and When the World Outlawed War. Swanson helped to plan the nonviolent occupation of Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., in 2011, and blogs at http://davidswanson.org.
“We can transcend the dynamic of conflict with Iran,” says Scharf. “Learning the facts and coming to a clearer understanding of U.S. involvement in the region are necessary first steps. We must also seek out Iranian views. Ultimately the United States needs to fundamentally rethink its approach to the region, and its nuclear policies more broadly. We simply cannot afford more war.”
“Peace Perspectives on Iran” is part of the Richmond Peace Education Center’s programming on global peace issues. The forum is free and the public is invited to attend.
WHAT: “Peace Perspectives on Iran: Why Military Intervention is Not the Answer,” a public forum.
WHERE AND WHEN: Ginter Park Presbyterian Church, Thursday, May 24, 7:15pm – 9pm. For directions: http://ginterparkpc.org/visitors/directions.htm
CONTACT: Adria Scharf, Executive Director, Richmond Peace Education Center, 232-1002, scharf@rpec.org
Ice Water with Lemon and a Dash of Chloramine
Uncontent with the existing methods by which industrialized societies poison themselves, local governments across the United States have apparently come up with a new one: adding chloramine to our water. The case against doing so, seems to be pretty well documented.
Here's an article from Cville Weekly.
Lorrie Delahanty provides some information and what can be done about it:
Hopelessly Devoted
You'd never know it from watching television, but there are many thousands of people in the United States who take peace, justice, environmental protection, and government of the people so seriously that they don't censor themselves whenever the president is a Democrat.
While many others are still debating whether it would be appropriate to criticize or protest President Obama after a mere three and a half years of disaster, the people I have in mind have been openly and honestly resisting the latest Wall Street war monger since before he was elected.
May 12, 2012
Even Star Spangled War Is Hell
Originally published in the Indypendent Reader
In this bicentennial year of the War of 1812, the StarSpangledBaltimore.com website tells us:
"The War of 1812 represents what many see as the definitive end of the American Revolution. A new nation, widely regarded as an upstart, successfully defended itself against the largest, most powerful navy in the world during the maritime assault on Baltimore and Maryland. America's victory over Great Britain confirmed the legitimacy of the Revolution."
But the revolution had ended three decades before 1812, and the choice to launch a new war was made by the U.S. government in Washington, D.C.
In the lead-up to the War of 1812, the British and Americans exchanged attacks along the Canadian border and in the open seas. Native Americans also exchanged attacks with U.S. settlers, although who was invading whom is a question we've never wanted to face. But the choice to launch a full-scale war was not made by the "largest, most powerful navy in the world"; it was made by the national government that we now depict as fighting defensively in Baltimore.
May 11, 2012
Judge Deliberates on Whether to Save Earth's Atmosphere
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Wilkins heard the arguments on Friday in Washington, D.C., and is deliberating now on the question of whether young people can sue to compel their government to take serious measures to stop global warming.
May 9, 2012
In Four Minutes Thom Hartmann Explains What's Wrong With War and Violence
Listen to this four-minute clip from the Thom Hartmann Show:
http://warisacrime.org/downloads/thomhartmannviolence.mp3
Thom tells his caller to read War Is A Lie:
http://warisalie.org
But Thom uses brilliant arguments and facts that are not even in the book, which is really the best result an author can hope for: inspiring further thought.
There's also a video of Thom Hartmann and David Swanson discussing this topic at http://warisalie.org
The Thom Hartmann Show is at http://thomhartmann.com
May 8, 2012
Talk Nation Radio: Stephen M. Kohn on Our Government's Attacks on Whistleblowers
Stephen M. Kohn of the National Whistleblowers Center says that for national security whistleblowers, Obama's presidency has been "a disaster." Kohn, the author of eight books on whistleblower law, represents Sibel Edmonds, an FBI whistleblower and the author of the just-released Classified Woman. Edmonds submitted her book to the FBI for censorship, and the FBI failed to identify anything that she could not print, but also refused to approve of the book. Edmonds, however, has gone ahead and published it. The book protects, rather than endangering, national security. But it does embarrass the FBI.
Total run time: 29:00
Host: David Swanson.
Producer: David Swanson.
Engineer: Christiane Brown.
Music by Duke Ellington.
Download or get embed code from Archive.org or AudioPort or Radio4All or LetsTryDemocracy.
Syndicated by Pacifica Network.
Please encourage your local radio stations to carry this program every week!
Embed on your own site with this code:
<object autostart="false" data="http://davidswanson.org/sites/davidsw..." height="100px" width="400px"></object>
