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.

Christians as Dangerous Good Samaritans, by Gary Olson

Painting by Charles Lock Eastlake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Gary Olson
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
Originally published Dec. 22, 2021
December 14, 2022

Lately, I’ve been musing about religion and politics. And more specifically, the thought that keeps recurring to me is the following: Is the idea of born agains and other Christians becoming political radicals, a far-fetched one? Or, should the question be, how could they not become politically radical Christians?

Christians as Dangerous Good Samaritans, by Gary Olson

Painting by Charles Lock Eastlake, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

by Gary Olson
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
December 22, 2021

Lately, I’ve been musing about religion and politics. And more specifically, the thought that keeps recurring to me is the following: Is the idea of born agains and other Christians becoming political radicals, a far-fetched one? Or, should the question be, how could they not become politically radical Christians?

Distinguishing Radical Liberation from Liberal Authoritarianism, by Kenn Orphan

Image by California National Guard via Flickr

by Kenn Orphan
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Halifax, Nova Scotia
December 14, 2021

“Puritanism has made life itself impossible. More than art, more than estheticism, life represents beauty in a thousand variations; it is indeed, a gigantic panorama of eternal change. Puritanism, on the other hand, rests on a fixed and immovable conception of life; it is based on the Calvinistic idea that life is a curse, imposed upon man by the wrath of God. In order to redeem himself man must do constant penance, must repudiate every natural and healthy impulse, and turn his back on joy and beauty.” — Emma Goldman

Chris Hedges: The Squad are Useful Idiots to the Establishment + What Will Trigger Revolution In America?

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Dandelion Salad

“The Liberal Left has forgotten the fundamental importance of economics and the fundamental issue which is class warfare.” — Chris Hedges

Chris Hedges: Cancel Culture

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Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Apr 24, 2021

On the show this week, Chris Hedges discusses cancel culture with Dan Kovalik, author and Associate Professor of Law at the University of Pittsburgh.

Medea Benjamin: Are Progressives Ignoring Foreign Policy?

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Dandelion Salad

theAnalysis-news on Mar 29, 2021

Many progressives are ignoring U.S. aggression around the world despite its involvement in many wars and expanding arsenal of nuclear weapons. Medea Benjamin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

The USA Has Been A Plutocracy Thinly Disguised As Democracy Ever Since Its Founding by Eric Schechter

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Updated: May 20, 2019

by Eric Schechter aka LeftyMathProf
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Eric’s Rants and Videos blog
May 13, 2019

Progressives are fooled by the corporate news media, who are paid to lie about wars, climate, economics, everything. Progressives believe the abuses in capitalism can be removed through reforms; they haven’t realized that the abuses are capitalism. A simple analysis shows that inequality, externalities, and alienation are terrible evils inherent in every version of capitalism.

When the World Crumbles, I’ll Blame the Democrats + A Marxist Perspective on Bernie Sanders’ Yemen Bill + Caleb Maupin: Who are “Houthis”?

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the videos below

With Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Peace Report
December 17, 2018

Clearly, the Republican party is one of the most dangerous organizations on this planet so I won’t need to convince any reasonable minded person of that argument. Yet, I see an American populace swept up in the Blue Wave in another attempt to reform the Democrat Party. But the Dems are the problem because they pacify the nation and we keep forgetting that they are capitalists. It is fundamental to understand that capitalists will never give up their power, especially through elections. […]

The Biggest Political Delusion Of All Is In The U.S. Electoral Politics Itself by Paul Street + Nobody to Vote For by David Swanson + Politicians Robbing Us Blind

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr
Watch the video below

by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
October 22, 2018

The United States is full of personally decent and caring, often highly intelligent people mired in political ignorance and delusion.

Sorry, Bernie, We Need Radical Change by Paul Street

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by Paul Street
Writer, Dandelion Salad
The Official Website of Paul Street
August 12, 2018

One of the more darkly amusing narratives in current establishment Democratic Party positioning for the 2018 mid-term elections and the 2020 presidential contest is the claim that the Bernie Sanders tendency represents a radical “socialist” threat that will tip the races to the Republicans and Trump.

You Can’t Have a Progressive Movement Without Peace by David Swanson + Desmond Tutu on #NoWar

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by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
September 9, 2017

Remarks at People’s Convergence Conference, Sept. 8, 2017

Here’s my five-minute case for why you can’t have an effective progressive movement in the United States that doesn’t include working for peace. War and militarism and bases and ships and missiles and sanctions and nuclear threats and hostility make up the filter through which much of the other 96% of humanity experiences this 4%. The U.S. Congress chooses how to spend a great deal of money each year, and chooses to put 54% of it into war and preparations for war. The wars demonstrably increase rather than reduce or eliminate anti-U.S. sentiment and violence. They endanger us rather than protect us. The wars are a top cause of death and injury in the world, and a top cause of famines and disease epidemics and refugee crises that cause massive additional suffering. But war kills most by diverting resources. Small fractions of U.S. military spending could end starvation, provide clean water, end diseases, even end the use of fossil fuels worldwide. Military spending also reduces jobs in comparison to other spending or not taxing working people in the first place.

“Progressive”: Does its Meaning Depend on Whatever the Clintons Think is “Progress”? by Rob Hager

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by Rob Hager
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
Older version published February 10, 2016
September 20, 2016

The battle between Sanders and Clinton over the term “progressive” presented an opportunity to discuss some history. Now that Sanders is supporting the very person who misappropriated the term it is even more important to define what does progressive mean, if it is more than a euphemism for the vague term “liberal.” This article argues on the contrary that “progressive” has a very precise meaning conferred by its history.

The Battle Over the Term “Progressive” by Rob Hager

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Please see revised version: “Progressive”: Does its Meaning Depend on Whatever the Clintons Think is “Progress”? by Rob Hager

by Rob Hager
Guest Writer, Dandelion Salad
February 10, 2016

The battle between Sanders and Clinton over the term “progressive” presents an opportunity to discuss some history relevant to the campaign. The meaning of the term gains importance from new thinking that “people of color and progressive whites add up to a new majority” comprising 23% and 28% of the electorate respectively. See Steve Phillips, Brown is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution Has Created a New American Majority (2016). These Americans are those most strongly committed to America’s republican traditions. Today’s progressives represent the same fraction who fought to establish the republic envisaged by the two Toms, Paine and Jefferson.

Jeff Cohen: New Netroots Organization Founded Independent of Dems

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