David Swanson's Blog, page 229
March 13, 2011
Listen to Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox this Sunday
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Dear Friend/Supporter
Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox wants to extend our deepest sympathy with the people of Japan after the quake and tsunami last week. We also fervently hope that Japan does not suffer another nuclear disaster.
Why nuclear power plants are built on or near fault lines when it is a very filthy energy, anyway, is beyond belief!
The president of this country is pro-nuclear power and pro-off shore drilling. All of the billions of dollars in damage, loss of life, and illnesses due to these dangerous energies is not necessary. Technology already exists to move to completely clean and renewable forms of energy.
Anyway, our guests on Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox this weekend are the Virginians!
Karen Kwiatkowski, an antiwar Republican, retired Lt. Colonel, and possible candidate for U.S. Congress from Va.
Our good Soapbox buddy, David Swanson, also of Va. We chat about the role of the Democrats and their supporters in killing vibrant movements that may actually have a chance to succeed.
Listen at 2pm (PST), or any time after in the archives at:
Love & Peace
Cindy Sheehan
SUPPORT CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX
March 12, 2011
March 10, 2011
Audio: Wisconsin and Michigan Discussed by Coy Barefoot and David Swanson
Dave Swanson joins Coy to discuss the latest on the outcry in Wisconsin over cuts to collective bargaining rights and Michigan Governor Rick Snyder seeking emergency powers.
Standard Podcast [15:47] Hide Player | Play in Popup | Download (2)Michigan Fascism Not New in DC
Michigan governors aren't breaking entirely new ground in the ongoing U.S. collapse into fascism. Sure, they'll be able to overthrow local elected governments and install cronies and corporations to rule over Americans without the pretense of public servants mediating. But the president of the United States can already do that to the entire country. I wonder if anyone remembers these lines from Congressman Dennis Kucinich's articles of impeachment for George W. Bush:
March 8, 2011
Kindness, Generosity, and Bombing Libya
Wouldn't it be kind and generous of us to send the US or NATO or a UN-approved military into Libya to bloodlessly prevent the vicious slaughter of masses of people by a truly evil lunatic?
Would it?
In a study called "Why Civil Resistance Works," Maria Stephan and Erica Chenoweth examined major uses of violence and nonviolence against tyrannical governments around the world between 1900 and 2006. They found that violence succeeded 26 percent of the time. I think they were taking a short view, because the blowback from violence is often delayed. But they found that nonviolence succeeded 53 percent of the time, over twice as often.
You Might Be a Transpartisan If . . .
A quick glossary:
Partisan: a loyal supporter of the Democratic, Republican, Green, Libertarian, or other party, whether through ignorance or willingness to compromise.
Independent: an isolated member of the majority.
Bipartisan: a subspecies of the Democratic Partisan native to Washington, D.C.
Nonpartisan: someone content with no representation in exchange for no taxation.
Antipartisan: One who would transfer power from parties to people.
Transpartisan: an American interested in introducing humanity and complexity (and civics lessons) into political communications by working around the corporate media.
March 7, 2011
Who's Running This Hallucination?
Most people are just living along
Humming a song
Trying to get by
A gleam or a tear in their eye
But they're not helping push the world back the other way
Yet there will come a day
And maybe it's this one
When every shoulder joins in
And then the world begins again
But this time -- damn it -- we're in charge of the production
And we're writing the script
And if you've slipped we'll help you up
But there will be no sitting down
Until every last person has a home to own
And millions of those homes
Are inside the abandoned bones
Of what we used to call banks
And savings and loans
Who's Running This Halucination?
Most people are just living along
Humming a song
Trying to get by
A gleam or a tear in their eye
But they're not helping push the world back the other way
Yet there will come a day
And maybe it's this one
When every shoulder joins in
And then the world begins again
But this time -- damn it -- we're in charge of the production
And we're writing the script
And if you've slipped we'll help you up
But there will be no sitting down
Until every last person has a home to own
And millions of those homes
Are inside the abandoned bones
Of what we used to call banks
And savings and loans
Another Life Focuses This One
Brilliant and humane playwright Karen Malpede has produced another play that grabs this country by the lapels, shakes it, caresses its cheek, and kicks its ass. The play is called "Another Life" and the life it leaves me thinking about is the life of our dreams.
The play is not so much a national nightmare or a national fantasy as a surreal reproduction of the mixture of horrors and hopes that most dreaming is: the most gruesome and graphic and taboo of our collective fears without exactly the fear itself, the deepest of longings and desires in immediate and mundane form but recognizable as revelations upon awakened reflection.
