"...at the very moment the number one nation has perfected the science of killing, it has become an impractical instrument of political domination." - Richard Barnet, Roots of War, 1972
France and Russia’s military responses to mass murders in Paris and Egypt echo the United States’ response to mass murders in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania in 2001. As Oxford University researcher Lydia Wilson told Democracy Now on November 17th, Islamic State (IS) is "seemingly delighted" by this warlike response to its latest atrocities.

The show started with The Mosers, their music is upbeat, fun and loud and their personalities shown through in their new sound. Their energy was a great way to start the show.

Following this uplifting act came Night Riots. Lead singer Travis Hawley’s voice was hauntingly eerie and it was fitting we were in Brooklyn, as they were as hipster (in a good way) as they come. At one point Travis stood on the drums. Yes, on the Drums – don’t ask me how. Their music left you entranced and ready, and talent was tangible. 

As you read this, a terror attack has put atomic reactors in Ukraine at the brink of another Chernobyl-scale apocalypse.

Transmission lines have been blown up. Power to at least two major nuclear power stations has been “dangerously” cut. Without emergency backup, those nukes could lose coolant to their radioactive cores and spent fuel pools. They could then melt or explode, as at Fukushima.

Yet amidst endless “all-fear-all-the-time” reporting on ISIS, the corporate media has remained shockingly silent on this potential catastrophe.

Nor has it faced the most critical step needed to protect our planet in a time of terror: shutting all atomic reactors.

The world’s 430-plus licensed commercial nuclear plants give terrorists like ISIS the power at any time to inflict a radioactive Apocalypse that could kill millions, destroy huge parts of the Earth and devastate the global economy.

Mindful of the violent reactions from Donald Trump supporters at recent campaign rallies, a small group of protesters took a more subtle approach when the presidential candidate spoke at the Greater Columbus Convention Center on November 23. When Trump got to the podium and began to speak, the protesters turned their backs on him.

As Trump pitched his anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-Muslim agenda to a cheering crowd, the protesters took out books by classic and modern socialist authors and quietly read through the first 40 minutes of the rally. They stood about 200 feet from the podium, surrounded by thousands of ardent Donald Trump supporters.

The action was organized by Hayley Cotter, who supports Bernie Sanders’ run for President. “My inspiration was from Johari Osayi Idusuyi, a woman who read a book through another Trump rally,” she said. “It was a very powerful statement in opposition to Trump’s fascism.”

I’m sitting in the aftermath of Paris, feeling emotions tear me apart. One of the emotions is joy. My daughter, who lives there, is safe.

Has “joy” ever felt so troubling?

The aftermath of Paris seems likely to be intensified (“pitiless”) bombing raids in Syria, closed borders, heightened fear-based security and the deletion of “the gray zones of coexistence” across the planet.

Oh, it’s so nice to have an enemy who is truly evil! And the logic of war is so seductive. It simplifies all these complex emotions. Just watch the news.

The news is that terror wins. Indeed, terror is the cornerstone of civilization.

I couldn’t get that notion out of my head. That’s because I couldn’t stop thinking about an act of extraordinary terror that took place just over a dozen years ago, and its relevance to the world’s current state of shock and chaos. Doing so made it impossible to contemplate the raw savagery of the ISIS killings in Paris and Beirut and everywhere else — the “my God!” of it all, as innocent lives are cut short with such indifference — in a simplistic context of us vs. them.