Mass Murder: Our Wounded Humanity, by Robert C. Koehler

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by Robert C. Koehler
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
April 15, 2023

Once again… once again… once again….

I’m sure you know what I’m referring to. Yeah, another — the latest (?) — mass shooting in the United States, this one at Old National Bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 10, two days ago as I write. Five killed, eight injured. The shooter, an employee of the bank, was killed in a shootout with police. Three officers were injured, including a rookie officer (ten days on the job), who was shot in the head and is struggling to survive. The gunman’s weapon was a nice, reliable AR-15-style rifle, legally purchased at a local gun shop a week earlier.

Finian Cunningham and Clara Mattei: The Capital Order: How Economists Invented Austerity and Paved the Way to Fascism

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by Finian Cunningham
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Ireland
April 13, 2023

Finian Cunningham on Apr 12, 2023

Western liberal democracy and its ubiquitous “austerity economics” is a euphemism for fascism. And the charade is finally coming to an end.

New York Times Is Now Telling Bigger Lies Than Iraq WMDs and More Effectively, by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
April 12, 2023

The New York Times routinely tells bigger lies than the clumsy nonsense it published about weapons in Iraq. Here’s an example. This package of lies is called “Liberals Have a Blind Spot on Defense” but mentions nothing related to defense. It simply pretends that militarism is defensive by applying that word and by lying that “we face simultaneous and growing military threats from Russia and China.” Seriously? Where?

Staying Alive in a Country of Death, by Brad Wolf

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by Brad Wolf
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 21, 2023

“I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore.”

So screamed the character Howard Beale in the 1976 movie “Network,” a prescient commentary on the corporate capture and slow suffocation of America. Howard was a prime-time news anchor who’d had enough.

How U.S. Military Spending Works, by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Mar. 10, 2023
March 15, 2023

Here’s how this works each year.

1) Biden proposes a massive increase in military spending — above and beyond both what he proposed the year before and what the Congress increased that to. If you look at U.S. military spending according to SIPRI in constant 2021 dollars from 1949 to now (all the years they provide, with their calculation adjusting for inflation), Obama’s 2011 record will probably fall this year. If you look at actual numbers, not adjusting for inflation, Biden has set a new record each year.

Christian Sorensen: America’s Militarization of Eastern Europe

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by Christian Sorensen
Writer, Dandelion Salad
March 6, 2023

“Conflict is the inevitable result of a rapacious US war industry coupled with a Pentagon that behaves like it owns the world.” — Christian Sorensen

10 Ways the War in Ukraine Threatens Our Environment

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Dandelion Salad
February 22, 2023

Codepink on Feb 16, 2023

The war in Ukraine is not only a human tragedy, but an environmental disaster with exploding chemical plants spewing toxins into the air, rockets increasing greenhouse gasses and warships killing marine life.

Inflation, Layoffs, and the $1 Trillion War Budget, by Scott Scheffer

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Dandelion Salad

by Scott Scheffer
Struggle ★ La Lucha
February 11, 2023

In January, tech companies laid off 97,020 workers, more than double the layoffs in the first month of last year.

Amazon, Microsoft, and Google were responsible for most of the January cuts – 18,000, 10,000, and 12,000, respectively.

David Swanson and Lee Camp: Can The March To WW3 Be Stopped?

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Feb. 7, 2023
February 8, 2023

“It’s incredible the extent to which people still fantasize about a nuclear war in one part of the globe as if the scientists haven’t told us it impacts the entire Earth and the cloud of dust renders agriculture impossible and everybody starves and the living envy the dead.” — David Swanson.

Chris Hedges and Richard D. Wolff: It’s Just Another Debacle By The War Profiteers

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Democracy At Work on Jan 30, 2023

In this week’s show, Prof. Wolff explains why capitalism does not deserve credit for improved living conditions, Home Depot billionaire blames US capitalism’s problems on US workers being “lazy, fat, and stupid,” Southwest Airlines as example of failures by both corporations and their gov’t “regulators,” George Santos as creature of capitalist advertising.

The Monroe Doctrine Is 200 and Should Not Reach 201, by David Swanson + The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace it With

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Jan. 17, 2023
January 19, 2023

David Swanson is the author of the new book The Monroe Doctrine at 200 and What to Replace It With.

The Monroe Doctrine was and is a justification for actions, some good, some indifferent, but the overwhelming bulk reprehensible. The Monroe Doctrine remains in place, both explicitly and dressed up in novel language. Additional doctrines have been built on its foundations. Here are the words of the Monroe Doctrine, as carefully selected from President James Monroe’s State of the Union Address 200 years ago on December 2, 1823:

Ralph Nader and Lawrence Wilkerson: The Institutional Insanity (of) “Defense”

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Dandelion Salad

with Ralph Nader

Ralph Nader Radio Hour on Jan 14, 2023

Ralph welcomes back retired Colonel Lawrence Wilkerson to talk about American military policy, including the record $816.7 billion Pentagon budget, the war in Ukraine, the insanity of nuclear weapons, potential conflict with China and what the right-wing caucus in the House of Representatives really wants when they say they want to cut military spending. Plus, Ralph reads and responds to your questions and feedback from previous programs.

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Nuclear Fusion Hype: A Boost For U.S. Armaments, Not Clean Energy, by Scott Scheffer

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Dandelion Salad

by Scott Scheffer
Struggle ★ La Lucha, Jan. 7, 2023
January 8, 2023

Jennifer Granholm, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, led a press event on Dec. 13 to announce a major scientific breakthrough at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory.

ICBM: Incubating Catastrophe Beyond Measure, by David Swanson

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
December 29, 2022

There’s a simple idea, advanced most effectively by Daniel Ellsberg. Whether you love nuclear weapons, believe they’re unfortunately necessary, or think they’re the stupidest thing ever to spend a cent — much less trillions of dollars — on, you ought never to imagine a need for more than the nukes on submarines and airplanes. Having them on land as well, whether you call it a Holy Triad of nuclear weapon types or not, ought to be understood as really, really dumb, no matter what you think of loading up subs and planes with enough weapons to end all life on Earth many times over. You may, as I do, believe that almost nothing could be crazier than nukes on subs and planes; or you may swear that such deployments amount to the wisest action ever taken by the human species, or by the 4% of humanity that you give a damn about, or anything in between. But there is something crazier, that we should all be able to come together and recognize as the single craziest thing ever: nukes on land, ICBMs, Inter-Continental Ballistic Missiles.

Chris Hedges and Dennis Kucinich: How The Military-Industrial-Complex Has Become The Enemy From Within

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Dec 16, 2022

There was once a wing of the Democratic Party that stood up to the war industry. J. William Fulbright, George McGovern, Gene McCarthy, Mike Gravel, William Proxmire, and, of course, Dennis Kucinich. But that was largely decades ago.