If We Can Find Just 238 More Congress Members Who Don’t Want Us All to Die…, by David Swanson

Image by Felton Davis via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Oct. 24, 2022
October 25, 2022

When an election has been very close, many factors can be pointed to as each having been enough to make the difference. One of those in 2016 was very suggestive and very much ignored by, as far as I know, every single major media outlet except this one. I mean the phenomenon of military families voting against Hillary Clinton, believing her more likely than Donald Trump to get their loved ones killed. It seems this factor decided the election.

Surviving the Killing Fields, by Kathy Kelly and Nick Mottern

Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr

by Kathy Kelly and Nick Mottern
Guest Writers, Dandelion Salad
October 11, 2022

Awaiting discharge from a hospital in Cairo, Adel Al Manthari, a Yemeni civilian, faces months of physical therapy and mounting medical bills following three surgeries since 2018, when a U.S. weaponized drone killed four of his cousins and left him mangled, burnt and barely alive, bedridden to this day.

David Swanson, et al: How to Get to a World BEYOND War + Why Abolish War, by David Swanson

Image by Ben W via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Sept. 19, 2022
September 20, 2022

Plenary: How to Get to a World BEYOND War

UNITY EARTH on Sep 19, 2022

Why it’s needed, what educational work moves us toward it, and what nonviolent activism can accomplish.

Every Single Member of Congress Is Willing to Let Yemeni Children Die, by David Swanson

Image by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Aug. 24, 2022
August 25, 2022

Every Single Member of Congress Is Willing to Let Yemeni Children Die.

If you want to prove that statement wrong, I think you’ll want to start by proving wrong one or more of these five points:

Will Griffin: The Crown Family, General Dynamics, and the US War Machine

Image by Josh Bartok via Flickr

by Will Griffin
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 27, 2022

The Chicago-based Crown Family might be known for their philanthropic efforts around the country, donating millions of dollars to universities, art institutions and a variety of other causes. Where did all that wealth come from? James Crown is the current director of General Dynamics (GD), the 5th largest weapons producer in the country and has their hands dirty in the Saudi-led war in Yemen, in Palestine and even at the Mexico border. His father, Lester Crown, was a previous president and chair of GD. His grandfather, Henry Crown, created the Material Service Corporation which eventually merged with GD, and gained controlling interest in GD in 1959, also becoming its director and chair.

The Chris Hedges Report: Ukraine and the ‘Worthy’ and ‘Unworthy’ Victims of War

Image by Felton Davis via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

TheRealNews on Apr 22, 2022

Rulers divide the world into ‘worthy’ and ‘unworthy’ victims; those we are allowed to pity, such as Ukrainians enduring the hell of modern warfare, and those whose suffering is minimized, dismissed, or ignored. This bifurcation of the world into worthy and unworthy victims is a key component of propaganda, especially in war.

OMG, War Is Kind of Horrible, by David Swanson

Image by Felton Davis via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy, Mar. 14, 2022
March 17, 2022

For decades, the U.S. public seemed largely indifferent to most of the horrible suffering of war. The corporate media outlets mostly avoided it, made war look like a video game, occasionally mentioned suffering U.S. troops, and once in a blue moon touched on the deaths of a handful of local civilians as if their killing were some sort of aberration. The U.S. public funded and either cheered for or tolerated years and years of bloody wars, and came out managing to believe falsely that a large percentage of war deaths are of troops, that a large percentage of war deaths in U.S. wars are U.S. troops, that wars happen in a mysterious place called a “battlefield,” and that with rare exceptions the people killed by U.S. troops are people who need killing exactly like those given death sentences in U.S. courts (except for the ones later exonerated).

Chris Hedges and Patrick Cockburn: Behind Enemy Lines: War, News, and Chaos in the Middle East

Image by Hossam el-Hamalawy via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

RT America on Oct 28, 2021

On the show, Chris Hedges discusses with foreign correspondent Patrick Cockburn the war, news and chaos in the Middle East.

Abby Martin: Biden’s Obscene Military Budget

Screenshot by Alisdare Hickson via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Apr 24, 2021

Abby Martin’s Empire Update wraps up the last weeks in US imperialism: Possible military expansion in Kenya, Army re-focus on fighting over the North Pole, Biden’s obscene military budget, Yemen hunger strike, major Cuba policy announcement, and a historic pro-Palestine bill in Congress.

Medea Benjamin: 10 Things Wrong With Biden’s Foreign Policy

Image by Susan Melkisethian via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

theAnalysis-news on Mar 22, 2021

Progressive Americans hoped Biden would quickly restore the Iran deal and relations with Cuba. Instead, the administration seems firmly entrenched behind Trump’s walls of hostility. Medea Benjamin joins Paul Jay on theAnalysis.news.

10 Key Points to Ending Wars in Yemen and Afghanistan, by David Swanson

Image by Debra Sweet via Flickr

by David Swanson
Writer, Dandelion Salad
Let’s Try Democracy
February 15, 2021

1. Victories that are only partial are not fictional.

When a ruler, like Biden, finally announces the end of a war, like the war on Yemen, it is as important to recognize what it does mean as what it doesn’t. It doesn’t mean the U.S. military and U.S.-made weapons will vanish from the region or be replaced by actual aid or reparations (as opposed to “lethal aid” — a product that’s usually high on people’s Christmas lists only for other people). It does not mean we’ll see U.S. support for the rule of law and the prosecution of the worst crimes on earth, or encouragement for nonviolent movements for democracy. It apparently does not mean an end to providing information to the Saudi military on whom to kill where. It apparently does not mean the immediate lifting of the blockade on Yemen.

Abby Martin: Biden’s Doublespeak About Ending Yemen War

Image by Felton Davis via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Feb 11, 2021

Abby Martin explains what President Biden really means by the duplicitous language in his major Feb. 4 foreign policy speech on ending the Yemen war.

Abby Martin: The Grand Finale of Trump’s Promise to End the Afghanistan War

Image by Stephen Melkisethian via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Nov 23, 2020

The Empire Update for Nov. 23 covering the Grand Finale of Trump’s promise to end the Afghanistan War; what’s really behind the Somalia troop withdrawal; US-backed monarchy sparks new potential war in Africa; State Department takes new action for Israel against BDS movement; and potential for Trump to start war with Iran on his way out.

Abby Martin: Trump Ending Afghanistan War?

Image by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Abby Martin

Empire Files on Nov 16, 2020

The Empire Update for Nov. 16 covering new US weapons sales to UAE for Yemen war, accelerated Iran sanctions, Pompeo’s UN “human rights” speech, and if the firing of Secretary of Defense Mark Esper indicates an end to the Afghanistan War.

Christian Sorensen: Military Contract Literacy

Screenshot by Dandelion Salad via Flickr

by Christian Sorensen
Writer, Dandelion Salad
July 3, 2020

C.P. Sorensen on Jun 27, 2020

I analyze three military contracts from Friday, 26 June 2020, and explain some features of the U.S. military-industrial-congressional triangle (popularly known as the military-industrial complex).