Showing posts with label nuclear war. Show all posts
Showing posts with label nuclear war. Show all posts
Monday, February 3, 2025
Wednesday, January 29, 2025
‘Meggie’ Taylor Performs “War Is Making Us Poo
Rapper “Meggie” Megaton Taylor recorded my new anti-war song.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Wednesday, May 24, 2023
The U.S. and Perpetual War
My latest book is a powerful and empowering collection of commentaries and insights by some of today’s most respected political thinkers. The world is a mess and America is in big trouble. Despite the finger-pointing, it is the U.S. itself which is causing its own problems. Perpetual war is destroying our nation. To stop the unfolding disaster, we must honestly look at how our own leadership and policies have led the country astray. This book is the perfect place to start.
Featuring interviews of Noam Chomsky, Larry Wilkerson, Paul Craig Roberts, Mark Skidmore, Coleen Rowley, William J. Astore, Abby Martin, Dan Kovalik, Lee Camp, Finian Cunningham, Michael T. Klare, Cynthia McKinney, Scott Ritter, Joe Lombardo, Bruce Gagnon, Norman Solomon, Peter Kuznick, Ajamu Baraka, Margaret Kimberley, Matthew Hoh, Garland Nixon, and Dennis Kucinich.
As an eBook (75% off … $1.99 USD, May 22nd – 29th) . . .
- Apple iBook
- Amazon (US) Kindle
- Barnes & Noble Nook Book
- Amazon (Canada) Kindle
- Amazon (Australia) Kindle
- Amazon (United Kingdom) Kindle
- Amazon (Japan) Kindle
- Smashwords (all ebook formats)
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As a Deluxe Paperback . . .
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Tuesday, November 1, 2022
No Excuse For Ignorance
I’m well aware of the deluge of lies, misinformation, disinformation, historical amnesia, ideological bias, and pure tribal hatred for Russia and Vladimir Putin, which saturates the media, with any mention of Russia, Ukraine, NATO, and the EU, by politicians, celebrities, commentators, every talking head who gets shoved in our faces via TV and the internet.
I’m going to make an audacious, totally irrefutable, unequivocal statement about all of this: There is absolutely no excuse for the ignorance which has become new normal for our fake thought leaders and authorities. Moreover, there is no excuse for any thinking person, any citizen who can read at a high school level or above — any of us everyday folks — to be taken in by the current phony narrative about Russia and its relationship to the U.S.
It is degrading and insulting to the intelligence and common decency of anyone with a functioning brain to be so callously manipulated, so frightened, so stampeded into the group-think which unabashedly promotes hatred, suspicion, divisiveness, fear; requires unwavering agreement, silencing anyone from even asking sensible, obvious questions; which embraces perpetual war, even casually talks about nuclear war; which demands absolute, unbending loyalty and obedience, our bowing down to leaders and self-anointed authorities who are provably either clinically insane or colossally incompetent . . . or both.
The good news is we don’t have to go along with this charade.
Finding out the truth is simple. It will require: 1) turning off your TV, and taking a healthy break from social media, internet news, Twitter, chat groups, YouTube and its numerous spinoffs; and 2) reading three books.
These three books are not difficult to read. They are extremely well-written, accessible, full of vital facts, information, and explanations. They are not ponderous academic works. Read with genuine curiosity and open-mindedness, they are pleasurable reading.
I do have to caution you. Because much of what you’ll discover will not fit the “official narrative” — which last time I checked was 99 and 44/100 percent pure fabrication — you’re going to have your eyebrows raised quite a few times; you might occasionally get upset — because discovering people you trusted have been lying through their teeth is never pleasant; you will probably, and justifiably so, have a lot of thinking and rethinking to do. But trust me, it will be worth every minute of it. I believe much of what now troubles and puzzles you, what now leaves you confused and stressed about current crises and the prospects for major war, your understandable fears about the coming economic meltdown and what are the real causes for such a catastrophe, questions about who runs our country and what drives its current self-destructive policies, will finally get some sensible answers. At least you’ll understand why we’re in the mess we’re in, and have a good idea what needs to be done . . . for your own good and that of your family and community.
Here are the three books:
Just today I finished the late Stephen F. Cohen’s War With Russia? Sadly he passed away a little over two years ago. This was his last book. It’s an incredible work. He could have written it yesterday, because everything he says is totally relevant today, perhaps even more so. From the publisher: “Prescient and even more relevant than when originally released in 2019, this Memorial Edition of War With Russia? provides keen perspective to help readers understand the current Ukraine crisis. Are we in a new Cold War with Russia? Does Vladimir Putin really want to destabilize the West? War With Russia? answers these questions and more.”
Dan Kovalik is a dedicated peace activist, and has been a labor and human rights lawyer since graduating from Columbia Law School in 1993. He has represented plaintiffs in ATS cases arising out of egregious human rights abuses in South America. He received the David W. Mills Mentoring Fellowship from Stanford Law School, and has lectured throughout the world. The Plot to Scapegoat Russia is part of a series of excellent books which exposes the underbelly of U.S. foreign policy: The Plot to Attack Iran, The Plot to Control the World, The Plot to Overthrow Venezuela, and No More War: How the West Violates International Law by Using ‘Humanitarian’ Intervention to Advance Economic and Strategic Interests.
Ron Ridenour was born in the US Military Empire, 1939. After four years in the Air Force, in 1961 he rejected the American Dream, and has since acted as an anti-war, anti-racist and solidarity radical activist (Long Hot Summer, 1964, in Mississippi; Wounded Knee AIM 1973; anti-Vietnam war coordinator in Los Angeles). He has lived in many countries and worked as a journalist-editor-author-translator for five decades, including for Cuba’s Editorial José Martà and Prensa Latina (1988-96). His The Russian Peace Threat: Pentagon on Alert is truly a seminal work, a must read for anyone who wants a solid understanding of how Russia became “the enemy”, plunging us into a second Cold War, the ugly fruits of which we now see in Ukraine.
We often heard it said that truth wins out. Yes, the truth will set us free.
That’s true. But only if we can get to it. In an age of false flags and fake news, psyops like MKUltra and Operation Gladio, coupled with the wholesale capture of “official” media — e.g. the New York Times and Washington Post — by the national security agencies, it most certainly isn’t always easy. At least in terms of the accelerating hostility and potential hot war between the US and Russia, I’ve tried to make it much easier.
If these books make you angry, that’s a good sign. It means you’re a rational, sensible, caring, morally sound person.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Friday, July 15, 2022
People Power – Part 2: Focus and Unite
Distractions divide us and guarantee we’ll never talk about essential core challenges. The egregious, central obstacles to “promoting the general welfare” are never mentioned by the talking heads, the pundits or politicians, to whom we look for guidance and leadership.
Distract and divide promises catastrophe, even to those who use it to further their sinister agenda. It’s astonishing how myopic most of the people at the top are, eh?
The control of everything by a tiny, short-sighted ruling elite is now total and the consequences are apocalyptic. We helplessly watch as their pursuit of wealth and consolidation of power has resulted in a merciless war being waged against the 99.999%, the trashing of the ecosystem, and destruction of any prospects for humans ever living in harmony with either — that is, co-existing cooperatively and constructively with one another and living sustainably on the only planet we can call home.
There are three major battlefields for this amoral and sociopathic assault and we rarely have meaningful discussions about them, are forced to wade through a swamp of deceit and disinformation to even identify and try to address them, or are consigned to having non-sensical discussions which have no possible impact on outcomes.
Wealth Inequality: The funneling of wealth upwards has accelerated and long ago passed the threshold of irreversibility. 24,000 people die a day from starvation, while guys like Bezos, Gates and Musk have so much money they couldn’t spend it all in a million lifetimes. Corporations continue to consolidate and a handful of investment firms literally own everything. The system rewards monomaniacal pursuit of obscene levels of riches and opulence, the media lionizes self-aggrandizement. Every major religion has posted the warnings. Maybe they’re onto something.
War and Peace: War has become a religion and ‘peace’ an expletive. The U.S. economy is now built around and defended by endless wars and requires world conquest to continue satisfying its rapacious appetite. Arrogance and hubris have replaced civility and common sense. We are now confronting two major nuclear powers at the same time, Russia and China. The U.S. won’t back off and Russia and China will not bow down. Total war would be the last chapter in human history. No need to return the book to the library. Books and libraries would be radioactive dust.
Ecological Destruction: Notice I didn’t say ‘climate change’ and this is intentional. Because this exemplifies precisely how the cabal uses a worthy topic to defeat any hope for real reform. Climate change is one component of a war on the entire ecosystem which supports all life, which includes ocean depletion, toxicity of air and water, species extinction, soil depletion, desertification, deforestation, promotion of monoculture, not to mention the assault on the human organism with poorly tested medicinal drugs, chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, food additives, industrial and agricultural pollution, manmade radiation, the intensification of exposure to electromagnetic waves, gene “therapies” and genetic modification of foods, on and on. We are directed to focus all of our attention on climate change, a battle we might at best win — likely will not win at all — over the next five decades, at the expense of all other perilous policies and undertakings, working in sync to compromise and probably destroy the prospects for survival of life on Earth. Pretty clever, eh?
Distract and divide assures that these three destructive trends work synergistically. Wealth inequality is created and sustained by war, war itself makes the rich richer, the military is the number one institutional source of ecological destruction, ecological destruction drives desperation and creates the conditions for war over resources and resource-rich territory, wealth inequality puts the decisions about the health of ecosystems in the hands of those who are incentivized to externalize the damages their pursuit of wealth creates — dumping it in the laps of the 99.999% — likewise with the decisions to go to war. It’s an endless, accelerating, self-reinforcing, negative feedback loop — a race to the bottom in terms of quality of life and a hopeful or even survivable future for the masses of humanity. We are too distracted to assess and discuss them rationally and constructively, too divided to put up even a weak fight.
All three of these globalized pathologies likewise reinforce political control, as power is in parallel funneled and concentrated upwards.
Reversing any and all of this can only be achieved with focus and unity by a huge percentage of the global population: unwavering focus and unassailable unity directly targeting those responsible for the unfolding catastrophe.
There are two courses of action with the potential to break and defeat this skewed, oppressive, top-heavy, hierarchical system.
1) Imprisoning or killing the rich and powerful.
. . . and/or . . .
2) Vanquishing their control of all private and government institutions, then restructuring the entire system.
Neither is pleasant or easy. It seems, however, these two options are still on the table.
But let’s be clear. They won’t be for very long. Historical opportunity never arrives at a convenient time or when we expect it to. And it can disappear in a flash.
Moreover, while totalitarianism, oppression, abuse of power, class warfare, enslavement certainly never arrive at a convenient time, even a superficial glance at human history tells us these are what we can always expect.
Google ‘sociopaths’.
History also teaches us that the more ennobling, inspiring periods of history, those occasional surges that we deem progress, result from substantial numbers of people focusing on the challenges and uniting their energies, dedication, determination, creativity and time.
Focus and unite . . . the only solution.
Of course, often there have been violent revolutions — refer to #1 above — which create the conditions for comprehensive legal, systemic reform and restructuring — refer to #2 above. While nothing dictates that they are inseparable, again referring to history, we usually see them conjoined when the battle is in full swing.
I regret having to conclude with this, but there is a third possible course, the product of unprecedented technological advances, the direct result of humankind’s incredible ingenuity. Both our capacity to 1) generate life-terminating levels of toxicity in the environment and 2) produce weapons of war with total lethality for life on earth, puts the ultimate spanner in the works. We are in a race against time. If we continue to poison the planet and/or unleash the fury of nuclear war, other options become moot considerations. The end of the end game will be the end. Period. No sequel. No do overs.
Focus and unite . . . the only sane and possible solution.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Saturday, May 28, 2022
World War III is coming . . . LET’S DANCE!
We are sleepwalking into the greatest catastrophe in human history.
More accurately, we may be sleepwalking into the end of human history. The end of everything. Period!
Leaders in the US, NATO and the EU have openly stated they intend the Ukraine conflict to go on for a very long time. And remember, this is not about Ukraine. Zelensky is a joke, which makes sense, because he used to be a comedian. He’s perfectly qualified to be a joke. But these days he’s not funny. At all!
Russia does not want war. Russia does not want any of the animosity coming from the West. I can give hundreds of examples of Russia trying to cooperate with us. Now they’re simply fed up. They’re not going to tolerate the lies and broken promises anymore.
US and its NATO allies want to destroy Russia. That’s it in a nutshell. They have all along. Russia did not start this war. US and NATO gave Russia no alternative but to invade.
And the lunatics who are pushing for this will risk everything. They are even talking about nuclear war becoming more inevitable.
Are you getting this? Do you see where we’re headed?
We have one option: Removing these crazies from power. Appealing to them is ridiculous. They’re not listening. They don’t care what we sane and sensible people think. Period! They only know war and conquest. Now it’s destroy Russia and steal everything. Next it’s destroy China and steal everything. If we don’t all die in a nuclear holocaust, we will be in the middle of permanent war and slaughter for the next 20 years.
If there are any serious plans for stopping these maniacs, I’m not aware of them. The Peace Dividend strategy is a long shot. But as far as I can see, it’s all we have. You’ve heard the pleas emanating from the current peace movement . . . “Oh pretty please! Stop the wars. No more bombing Yemen. Bring the troops home. Let’s all be nice to one another!”
You want to see how well this will work? Try telling an anteater to stop eating ants. Next time there’s a thunderstorm, stand on your porch and yell at the clouds.
So what’s with the title? Well, I have been known to venture into sarcasm . . . at least a few times.
Truth is, I’m completely overwhelmed, underwhelmed, shocked, numb, and baffled. Thus, if everyone now being subjected to the 24/7 barrage of war propaganda, runaway inflation, food shortages, elementary school shootings, a crumbling economy, a totally inept and corrupt governing class, Covid-19 fear porn, monkeypox fear porn, now even casual talk about throwing nukes into the equation . . . yes, if everyone one night just went out into the streets, all 330 million of us, and started dancing, honestly? . . . IT WOULD COME AS NO SURPRISE!
Because THAT’S how nuts everything is these days!
But you know what? Quite honestly, it would be phenomenal to see such a show of unity — as surreal a show as it might be. Because for a few happy moments at least, or however long our little street party lasted, we wouldn’t be at each other’s throats, we’d stop the yelling and blaming and hating, and instead be showing off our best dance moves, shaking our booties, and just having a darn good time. I think it’s a great idea!
Which is my way of saying that more than ever before, we need to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, back-to-back, belly-to-belly, embrace and celebrate what we have in common, and put aside all differences that ultimately aren’t that important. We need to feel human again. We need to fully appreciate one another and understand that unified we are strong, divided we are weak and just pawns in someone else’s game, and that someone else sees us as “expendables”, just cannon fodder in wars to protect their wealth and power. We need to see who the real enemies are. Don’t be fooled by the lies. It’s not you and I that are the problem. We don’t start wars, we don’t crash the economy, we don’t loot the Treasury, we don’t jack up the contagiousness of viruses and inflict them on the rest of humankind, we don’t deprive one another of our share of the vast wealth of this country.
So getting together, whether it’s to dance, or to protest the abuses and humiliations we all endure just trying to survive, or to show up en masse at the polls and vote the pay-for-play lapdogs of the rich and powerful out of office, or to just talk to one another and try to sort out the mess our country is in — yes, getting together — is exactly what we must be doing!
It’s not just a pretty thought. Frankly it’s a matter of survival!
These wars will never end until we the people end them. Or the wars end us.
Yes, it’s that bad. And getting worse by the day.
You think I’m exaggerating? When is the last time you heard any of these blabbermouths on TV, in the media, or in government talk about … wait for it … (drumroll) … PEACE?
I rest my case.
Not long ago I came across a video that turns me into a crying old fool every time I watch it. And I won’t tell you how many times that is. It’s embarrassing and I’m surprised I’m not a dehydrated pile of talcum powder. Check it out!
First off, some things are SO BEAUTIFUL, only tears can express the total profound joy I’m feeling. Such a magnificent song, with such a powerful message! Seeing every size and shape musician, from across the globe, every color and religion and culture, come together just to make great music, to make Cat Stevens’ work of genius come alive again. Whew!
But there’s a darker side to my tears. Cat Stevens performed this the last time in America at the height of his popularity, near the end of his legendary North America tour. That was 1976. Meaning this amazing call for peace has been around for close to a half century. And look at the state the world is in. As inspiring as this masterpiece was back then, we never got on the “peace train”. Now forty-five years later. No peace train. No peace.
And that’s also something to cry about.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Thursday, March 31, 2022
The future is so bright . . .
but I have to be honest. These people are scary!)
Above are just some of the people in positions of enormous influence and power who are promoting the war in the Ukraine. Make no mistake about it. They couldn’t care less about Ukraine or the Ukrainian people. What they truly care about is destroying Russia.
Contrary to what 111.99% of what is reported in the Western MSM, Russia did not want this conflict. Putin did not want to “invade” Ukraine. Putin and the Kremlin do not want to kill innocent Ukrainian citizens. Russia does not want to take over and occupy Ukraine.
Russia was FORCED intentionally into this military action. This nightmare is the product of US/NATO provocation, intimidation, aggression, all engineered at minimum to give Russia a bloody nose, at maximum to liquidate Russia as an independent country.
So where is this heading?
Everyone in the idiot gallery above is for sending more arms to Ukraine. Of course, arming Ukraine with lethal weaponry, the threat of Ukraine arming itself with nuclear weapons, is what made it necessary for Russia to destroy the Ukrainian military — which is what it is now doing — because it had become an existential threat. So what’s the solution proposed by the above brain trust for addressing the crisis? How do they propose fixing this mess?
More arms . . . more weapons . . . more threats to Russia!
“Gee, what started that apartment building on fire, chief?”
“Apparently, open cans of gasoline and kerosene in the basement.”
“Well, gosh darn, there’s only one option. Let’s pour more gasoline and kerosene into the building and see what happens.”
Several of the idiots in the scary collage above have moreover suggested that NATO and the US establish a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Which will mean — please give this your full attention — US/NATO planes and missiles deployed to shoot down Russian aircraft. Translation: Direct engagement, military conflict — yes, war! — with Russia.
Gee . . . how will this turn out?
After decade after decade of bombing; after twenty years of the War on Terror; a meltdown of the economy in 2008-2009; two years and counting of Covid-19 technocratic terrorism still hovering over us like a sledgehammer; with a coming economic meltdown which will make 2008 look like a rounding error; with the raucous, maniacal, increasingly fever-pitch pounding of war drums and shrill harangues against Russia and China; with a Congress and White House apparently inhabited by the certifiably insane (again just look at the above collection of whackos) . . . hmm. Whaddya think?
What will the future look like?
My prediction is that if we keep going the way we are, the future will indeed be . . . bright!
Very bright! And hot! Here’s how I imagine it’ll turn out . . .
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Monday, September 9, 2019
Book Review: “The Plot To Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin”
It takes enormous courage to write a book like this, which goes completely against the narrative promoted by America’s foreign policy and military establishments. Courage because now any defense of Putin and Russia as actors on the world stage will not be met with reasonable, polite rebuttal and rational well-supported refutation, but personal vilification, marginalization, attacks on character and integrity, aspersions about disloyalty and lack of patriotic commitment, allegations of treachery and even sedition. Lacking anything — e.g. facts — with which to rebut and refute the message, opponents of a balanced, objective, truthful analysis of Russian-American relations must resort to attacking the messenger.
Early in the book, Mr. Kovalik describes the process which radicalized him, what personal events opened his eyes to the barbarity and hypocrisy which has been centerpieces of America’s history from its earliest days. His transformation occurred during a visit to Nicaragua during his college years. He learned then to question and always be highly skeptical of the “official rationale” inflicted on the general public in the U.S., because it was often driven by the covert intent of obtaining — often manufacturing out of thin air — consent for America’s diplomatic bullying, manipulations, wanton aggressions, destructive interference, regime changes, and outright subjugation of countries across the planet.
History is the best teacher for understanding the present. Our history, as is thoroughly explored and documented in this short but incisive volume, is riddled with false flags, misrepresentations, distortions, propaganda and outright lies, all carefully calculated to serve the real agenda of our government. This is to provide unambiguous support for U.S. corporate interests; ruthlessly undermining any nation which dares to consider even the most diluted iteration of socialism; and punishing — all too frequently destroying — any country, often even murdering its leaders, for independently adopting policies which don’t disproportionately benefit the U.S. and honor the authority of the U.S. as world hegemon.
What has Russia under Putin done? It put Russia’s interests first, it openly criticized the U.S. for its wanton aggression and disregard for international law, called out the U.S. for its consistent meddling in the affairs of other nations, including all too often violently overthrowing governments it doesn’t approve of, and moreover had the audacity to deploy national defense mechanisms which frees it of being blackmailed by U.S. military might. For the U.S., which regards itself as the “exceptional” nation selected by destiny to control the world, these constitute an inexcusable affront which must be answered, a challenge which must be eradicated, even if this requires a world war which might go nuclear.
So it’s Russia bad, Putin badder. Every imaginable and imagined accusation, typically presented as fact, is spewed out and flung at Putin and Russia. And thus what we get as “news” these days is a childish white hats vs. black hats depiction of the momentous battle of Great Good America vs. Scary Evil Russia, a facile scenario now dubbed as the Second Cold War.
The extremes our government spokespersons and the obsequious media has gone to in order to strike fear in all of us about Russia and to incite a personal hatred for Vladimir Putin, should by themselves raise suspicions and reasonable doubts about what’s going on. But when the media is controlled by six major corporations with unshakeable deference to official government propaganda and those who fabricate it, and political leaders from both major parties who are owned by Wall Street, the big banks, the corporations, the ruling elite who obscenely profit from perpetual war, all everyday people get 24/7 is yarns about the Russian threat, Putin’s bloodthirsty desire to return to the glory days of Russia as a great power, Russian aggression, Russian invasions, Russian meddling in our otherwise perfect democracy, Russian targeted assassinations, Russian plots to subvert and destroy freedom-loving countries, Russian blame for everything from STDs to plugged toilets and family squabbles. It’s a premeditated program of brainwashing inflicted on a gullible and generally hapless American public.
The only possible pre-revolutionary antidote is thorough, unbiased investigative journalism, potent research, historical knowledge and perspective, personal insights shared with candor and clarity, all of the foregoing assembled by an author of the high caliber of Dan Kovalik, into an immensely readable and superbly informative book like The Plot To Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin.
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . https://jdrachel.com ]
Book Review: “The Plot To Scapegoat Russia: How the CIA and the Deep State Have Conspired to Vilify Putin”
Sunday, April 30, 2017
An Open Letter to Dennis Kucinich on Peace in a Military State
I have talked to Dennis on the phone but it's been a while. He personally sent me a copy of this speech. Here's what I have to say about it -- an open letter. I hope he gets it.
Dennis:
As is true to form, your speech is breathtaking in its scope and packed with everything we need to know about what is wrong with America's embrace of aggression and militarism.
Since I have nothing to lose, and you have everything to gain from my unsolicited critique, I'll just give it to you straight with both barrels.
Like EVERYTHING I see coming out of brilliant, recognized, widely-admired peace proponents like yourself, your message lacks TWO VITAL, GAME-CHANGING COMPONENTS . . .
- It doesn't speak to the masses, the 200 million Americans we need to reach to turn things around.
- It offers no decisive solution to the gravest threat in the history of the world -- America's out-of-control military and addiction to war.
Why do we need these people? You said it yourself. While you were in Congress, you made proposals, you argued, you reasoned, you made deals. What happened? You were brushed aside like dandruff. Then you were railroaded out of Congress.
I don't know how you read this, but I know what the correct reading is. THESE ASSHOLES WILL NEVER LISTEN! THEY WILL NEVER EMBRACE PEACE!
Therefore . . .
THEY MUST BE REPLACED! There has to be almost a clean sweep of Congress or the march to war and annihilation will continue.
THAT'S why we need 200 million people on our side. It's that simple.
Are you offended yet? Are you still reading this?
SO . . . any speech, any strategy, any campaign on behalf of peace, which does not include, 1) a message for the masses, and 2) a decisive strategy for removing the warmongers from power, will fail. As long as the peace movement continues to delude itself about this, it will continue to go backwards.
I'm exhausted trying to get you to look at my Peace Dividend idea. Thank goodness, a brilliant, passionate activist just made the case for me. Here's John R. Hall's very recent article at The Greanville Post: http://www.greanvillepost.com/
Please read it. Think about it. I sincerely hope you want to talk more about this. I'm still available.
You have my number.
John Rachel
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at many of the usual outlets . . .
Amazon (Kindle) / US . . . amzn.to/2cpIRfQ
Amazon (Print) / US . . . amzn.to/2cEhnCb
Amazon (Kindle) / Canada . . . amzn.to/2ciZKdl
Amazon (Kindle) / Japan . . . amzn.to/2cbf3TO
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/2cWxvzd
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/2cI8cB6
Apple iTunes . . . apple.co/2cqw7an
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/2cb6Cse
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/2c3mJsl
[ This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
An Open Letter to Dennis Kucinich on Peace in a Military State
Friday, March 24, 2017
The Peace Movement in America: Status Report
What's that sound I hear?
Is it the masses of America demanding? . . .
Peace! Peace Now! We Want Peace!
Oops! My mistake.
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news . . .
It's actually a death rattle. The low guttural burbling of a movement on its death bed.
The sad truth is that the peace movement in America is in a coma, just a whimper away from an inglorious burial in an unmarked grave behind the county dump.
When is the last time more than a few hundred showed up at a massive rally for peace?
Is there hope?
I'd like to think there is.
But we have to be realistic. If we're going to have a serious national conversation about peace, ending the senseless self-sabotaging wars, and taking America off permanent war footing, we must approach everyday citizens in language they understand, in terms they can embrace, in a way that is so powerful and over-the-top they can't possibly ignore it.
The Peace Dividend concept is just that. It's so extreme and outside-the-box -- not that that discredits or invalidates it in the least -- it can only get traction from two sources.
Either a bold and charismatic politician makes it central to his public oratory and serious political agenda. Obama, Sanders, and (I hate to admit it) Trump would all be capable of "selling" it. Obama and Sanders both love war. Trump is mentally challenged. Maybe there's another MLK out there somewhere. We can dream!
Or we must look to the second and more likely path, which is through citizen demand.
Yet another senseless war breaks out. Body bags are piling up. The national debt begins skyrocketing. People have finally had it. They are sick of empire building, endless wars, appalling waste. This scenario could unfold sooner than we think. We have a tough guy president who's just proposed a 10% increase in our already bloated military budget, we have both major parties screaming for war. Major confrontation with Iran, China, Russia -- or all three -- is on the horizon.
Unfortunately, when that happens all chaos will be unleashed, the fog and frenzy of battle will roll over everyone like a toxic oil spill, the media will go into hyper-drive to "support our troops", the imbeciles who led us into the conflagration will be grandstanding and/or pointing fingers of blame at everyone else, and clearer heads will be lopped off in displays of fanatic super-patriotism as the media fills our eyes and ears with tales of valor, sacrifice, and super-human acts of heroism. It will be a bullshit storm of epic proportions.
So we need to act . . . and we need to act now!
We should be sounding the alarm loud and clear: People need to know about the "rip off" of their tax dollars and the grotesque lies being told to promote slaughter across the planet purely to stuff the coffers of the military corporations and their rich beneficiaries.
We could be doing this right now. There already exists a phenomenal network of peace activism. But these organizations are totally ineffective now because their message, 1) is not getting heard, 2) is not engaging, 3) is stale and boring. I have contacted hundreds of these groups and their spokespersons. No one is interested in new ideas. These include a lot of very famous peace activists (you would definitely recognize most of the names).
So . . .
Either I'm crazy.
Or . . .
These peace creeps can't get their heads around the idea that for 40 years now, continuing right up to the present, they have completely failed. The old methods and battle cries from the Vietnam War days haven't worked since the 70s. These folks need a new paradigm. They need new memes. They need both a new message and better messaging.
Just look around. We just had a Peace Prize president who dropped 26,171 bombs last year on countries we're not even at war with. The U.S. has engaged in massive military aggression in eight countries since the peace dividend was originally promised in 1992. We are now in an open-ended war on terror that is making us and the entire world less safe. Our military is the scourge of the planet!
Is the current peace movement actually going to claim they're making progress? That the demonstrations, petitions, bumper stickers are working? [Insert Einstein's definition of insanity here.]
The Peace Dividend concept is not some impulse, some catchy phrase developed over a bowl of hashish. It's a fully developed strategy. I've outlined what the approach entails, how it can be effected, how it can be paid for. This last point is the important. The Peace Dividend refund, because of its scale and the way it's underwritten, drives a host of other progressive reforms. It is a watershed for massive realignment of our priorities and use of financial resources. Seems like that would be worth paying attention to.
If you know anyone working in the anti-war organizations, please tell them they absolutely must take a look at my plan. Singing Give Peace A Chance doesn't cut it anymore. Neither does getting a peace sign tattooed to your forehead.
The world is rushing headlong toward world war, risking nuclear annihilation and the end of the human race. Eliminating geopolitical idiocy, imperial hubris, and monomaniacal delusions of conquest by challenging our warmongering elites with an effective plan of action should be what shapes and defines the struggle of those noble organizations attempting to abolish war and promote peace throughout the world.
A strategy like the Peace Dividend must be the centerpiece giving focus to their efforts.
Otherwise, the next time I file an update, the response will be . . .
"What peace movement?"
The Peace Dividend: The Most Controversial Proposal in the History of the World is now available both as an ebook and deluxe paperback at all of the usual outlets.
Amazon (Kindle) / US . . . amzn.to/2cpIRfQ
Amazon (Print) / US . . . amzn.to/2cEhnCb
Amazon (Kindle) / UK . . . amzn.to/2cKXFsV
Amazon (Kindle) / Canada . . . amzn.to/2ciZKdl
Amazon (Kindle) / Japan . . . amzn.to/2cbf3TO
Barnes & Noble . . . bit.ly/2cWxvzd
Kobo (Indigo) . . . bit.ly/2cI8cB6
Apple iTunes . . . apple.co/2cqw7an
Smashwords . . . bit.ly/2cb6Cse
Direct from printer . . . bit.ly/2c3mJsl
This originated at the author's personal website . . . http://jdrachel.com ]
The Peace Movement in America: Status Report
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