Global

By David Swanson

Of all the various groupings of Democrats raising campaign “contributions” under various banners, the only one that says anything useful about foreign policy is the Justice Democrats, whose platform says they want to close foreign bases, cut military spending, and end wars. It’s very short and vague, but it’s something.

The Justice Democrats’ website endorses 54 candidates and links to their websites. One is a candidate for governor, so let’s call it 53 candidates for Congress. They all supposedly support the platform of the Justice Democrats.

This year, Marvel Studios marks the 10th anniversary of the release of its first movie, Iron Man, and it does so with a movie that would have seemed like a crazy dream back then: Avengers: Infinity War, in which too many heroes to list fight a big guy with a giant purple chin and bejeweled golden glove and actually make it seem not totally ridiculous. Filmmaking has come so far that one of the biggest, gaudiest comic events of the early 90s can be adapted for the screen into a massive, critically-acclaimed blockbuster.

The question in the title of this week’s column was the title of the Duluth News-Tribune’s Opinion Page PRO/CON feature that was published yesterday, April 30, 2018.

The Boston Red Sox have finally decided to atone for two of the most racist, self-destructive snubs in sports history. Like so many other bigoted decisions, the team – and the town – paid a fearsome price.

And it did NOT come from the infamous “Curse of the Bambino.”

That one happened in 1920, when my dad was a two-year-old living in the shadow of Fenway Park. It was about money, not race.

That year the shady Bosox owner sold the great Babe Ruth to the hated Yankees for $125,000. He used the cash to fund a musical.

Soon Ruth led New York to more championships than we can bear to count. We wouldn’t win again until 2004, a “Cursed” wait of 86 years.

But selling the Bambino was NOT the dumbest thing the club ever did.

Just after World War II, the team shunned not one but TWO players as great as Ruth. And it happened not just from stupidity, but also from explicitly stated racism.

The two passed-over African Americans both went to New York, one to the Dodgers, the other to the Giants. Their names are hard for a Sox fan to say, but here they are: Jackie Robinson and Willie Mays. 

By David Swanson

When peace shows its face, and weapons companies’ stocks plummet, we have to do more than just cheer. We have to avoid misunderstanding where peace comes from. We have to recognize the forces that want to destroy it. We have to work to make it last and expand.

By David Swanson

Suzy Hansen’s book Notes on a Foreign Country is the diary of someone going through the process of gaining the world by losing their religion, the religion of U.S. Exceptionalism. She begins as an ordinary U.S. resident, not believing anything that you would find unusual, but assuming all the certifiably insane things you assume are not even questionable:

False Flag is a concept that goes back centuries. It was considered to be a legitimate ploy by the Greeks and Romans, where a military force would pretend to be friendly to get close to an enemy before dropping the pretense and raising its banners to reveal its own affiliation just before launching an attack. In the sea battles of the eighteenth century among Spain, France and Britain hoisting an enemy flag instead of one’s own to confuse the opponent was considered to be a legitimate ruse de guerre, but it was only “honorable” if one reverted to one’s own flag before engaging in combat.

Bob and Dan talk with Green Party write-in candidate Torin Jacobs and discuss the changes in Trump's revolving door of an administration.

http://www.wcrsfm.org/content/other-side-news-april-27-2018-torin-jacob…

BANGKOK, Thailand -- North Korea's Kim Jong Un learned from Saddam
Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi that nuclear weapons protect his survival,
and will disarm only if President Trump withdraws American forces and
ends the U.S.-South Korea defense treaty, said James Trottier who led
diplomatic efforts in Pyongyang.

North Korea agreed to "site closure, & no more testing!" Mr. Trump
tweeted on April 23 after Pyongyang announced on April 21 it would
halt developing and testing nuclear weapons.

Pyongyang however made no mention of dismantling thermonuclear
warheads and developmental ICBMs it supposedly possesses.

"North Korea views its nuclear capacity as a deterrent, not as a means
to launch a suicidal strike resulting in their total destruction. The
North Koreans are not jihadists seeking some afterlife," Mr. Trottier
said.

"For Kim, basically nuclear weapons are key to his survival. He's
learned the lessons of Saddam Hussein and Moammar Gadhafi -- what
happens when WMDs [weapons of mass destruction] are bargained away."

It may almost seem too obvious to mention, but I don’t think that’s why we so seldom mention it. I don’t mean being male, or being mentally disturbed, or having been cruel to women, or living in places like the United States where it’s easy to acquire weapons of war. These and many other factors are very significant and very often discussed, as they should be, when we consider mass killings.