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There really only is one option when it comes to nuclear weapons, and that is to do everything we can to abolish them before they abolish us. New York City Council will be voting on January 28, 2020, to do its part by voting on two measures that already have enough sponsors to give them veto-proof majorities.

One thing that becomes clear to me when I wander into the world, and the minds, of geopolitical professionals—government people—is how limited and linear their thinking seems to be.

When I do so, an internal distress signal starts beeping and won’t stop, especially when the issue under discussion is war and mass destruction, i.e., suicide by nukes, which has a freshly intense relevance these days as Team Trump plays war with Iran.

What doesn’t matter, apparently, is any awareness that we live in one world, connected at the core: that the problems confronting this planet transcend the fragmentary “interests” of single, sovereign entities, even if the primary interest is survival itself.

At a talk I delivered in Northern England in March 2018, I proposed that the best response to falsified accusations of antisemitism, which are often lobbed against pro-Palestinian communities and intellectuals everywhere, is to draw even closer to the Palestinian narrative.

In fact, my proposal was not meant to be a sentimental response in any way.

“Reclaiming the Palestinian narrative” has been the main theme in most of my public speeches and writings in recent years. All of my books and much of my academic studies and research have largely focused on positioning the Palestinian people - their rights, history, culture, and political aspirations - at the very core of any genuine understanding of the Palestinian struggle against Israeli colonialism and apartheid. 

Extended Excerpts (with some editing) from a Democracy Now! Interview with Retired Army Lt. Col Lawrence Wilkerson – January 13, 2020 (2436 words)

http://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/13/lawrence_wilkerson_american_empire_war

Bases, Demilitarization, Myth of Benefits, World

By David Swanson, Executive Director of World BEYOND War, January 15, 2020

South Korea cannot choose to make peace with North Korea without the consent of a foreign power that keeps thirty thousand troops in South Korea, makes South Korea pay much of the cost of housing them, commands the South Korean military in war, holds veto power at the United Nations, and is not accountable to the International Criminal Court or the International Court of Justice.

If one seriously seeks to understand how delusional policymakers in Washington are it is only necessary to examine the responses by the president and Congress to the assassination of Iranian Major General Qassem Soleimani. The first response came in the form of a Donald Trump largely incoherent nine-minute self-applauding speech explaining what he had done and why. It was followed by a House of Representatives War Powers non-binding resolution that was all theater and did nothing to limit the president’s unilateral ability to go to war with the Islamic Republic.

At long last, Fatou Bensouda, the Chief Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has uttered the long-anticipated conclusion that “all the statutory criteria under the Rome statute for the opening of an investigation (into alleged war crimes in the Occupied Palestinian Territories) have been met”.

Bensouda’s verdict has been in the making for a long time and should, frankly, have arrived much earlier. The ICC preliminary investigations into Israeli war crimes began back in 2015. Since then, many more such war crimes have been committed, while the international community persisted in its moral inertia.

Martin Sheen has just released a powerful new 11-minute video outlining the two biggest dangers the world faces.

As Emperor Trump cries havoc and lets loose and wags the dogs of war, up to 200 peace protesters held a Jan. 9 antiwar rally outside Los Angeles’ symbol of Washington, the Federal Building located near UCLA in Westwood. The demonstrators ranged from Vietnam era stalwarts to teenagers who have grown up in an America perpetually fighting endless - and unwinnable - wars. They began gathering before the 5:00 p.m. kick off time at the bus stop at the corner of Wilshire Blvd. and Veteran Ave., where info tables were already setup for the Bernie Sanders-for-president campaign and the #OUTNOW! Movement to drive Trump and Pence out of the White House.

Sanders is noted for his youthful acolytes but two older women “manned” the senator’s table offering leaflets and perhaps petitions. One volunteer told me “Bernie is the most antiwar candidate,” which given his long-standing support of antiwar causes and current stance against Trump’s escalations may be true. But the other Sander-nista added, “Bernie is the only antiwar candidate,” which I don’t think is accurate. (See: www.berniesanders.com.)

Please share and help others get informed. Good talk with the Great Harvey Wasserman.

As the insanity escalates in Iran and Iraq, we face the extremely sophisticated and dangerous on-going  push to manipulate the American electorate.

We’re joined by two of America’s top election protection analyst/activists JOHN BRAKEY and SUSAN PYNCHON.
These two brilliant and powerful citizens have already made a huge difference in how we conduct our elections.
Today the give us the inside information on Cambridge Analytica, computerized ballot marking devices and the other incredibly sophisticated tools being used to manipulate our elections.
Beneath the clouds of war and ecological catastrophe, Susan and John keep their eyes on the prize of actual democracy.
If you’re concerned about the realities of 2020 election, don’t miss this show.