Naomi Klein Town Hall Seattle, WA 28 September 2014 Human beings and the natural world are on a collision course. Human activities inflict harsh and often irreversible damage on the environment and on critical resources. If not checked, many of our current practices put at serious risk the future… Continue reading →
Chris Hedges Missoula, MT 3 February 2014 The demonic Captain Ahab in Melville’s epic novel Moby Dick represents a quest for power and domination that is a death wish. Hubris will doom Ahab and his Pequod crew, all perish except for Ishmael. Is there a larger lesson to be learned? Is the United… Continue reading →
Glenn Greenwald Town Hall Seattle, WA 17 June 2014 Imagine a gigantic vacuum cleaner scooping up all electronic communications. That’s what the National Security Agency does. Think you are safe from NSA snooping? That you can hide behind clever passwords? Think again. The Agency has the capability… Continue reading →
Jeremy Scahill Lincoln Center Fort Collins, CO 9 April 2014 The National Security Beast is a terrifying behemoth that extends its tentacles across the globe. Like a many-headed hydra it grows and grows. It has an insatiable appetite for weaponry. For example, in late 2013, the navy launched the… Continue reading →
Ray McGovern University Temple United Methodist Church Seattle, WA 17 October 2013 What is one to do when confronted by blatant criminal actions and illegalities? Look the other way? Punch out at 5 and go home? That’s not what Edward Snowden did. His disclosures have informed and educated the people… Continue reading →
Richard Wolff Brecht Forum, New York, NY 9 October 2012 Cascading economic problems and crises, coupled with dysfunctional political responses, have plunged many societies into deepening turmoil. Capitalism, the dominant economic system of our time, has once again become the subject of criticism and… Continue reading →
Noam Chomsky Denver, Colorado 7 May 2013 The Magna Carta is the foundational document of the legal system. It crucially asserted that law is sovereign, not the king. Today, the term rule of law is invoked by whoever is in the White House. But you have to wonder what do they mean? There is one set of… Continue reading →
Thomas Linzey Eugene, Oregon 2 March 2013 Communities across the country, trying to stop a wide range of threats and unwanted projects such as gas drilling and fracking, mining, pipelines, factory farming, sewage sludging, landfills, coal shipments and GMOs, all run into the same problem: they don’t… Continue reading →
Barbara Ehrenreich Lecture, then interview by David Barsamian (This event was presented by the Lannan Foundation.) Santa Fe, New Mexico 13 March 2013 The rise in New York’s poverty rate as a result of the ongoing recession has pushed nearly half of the city’s population into the ranks of the poor or… Continue reading →
Yves Engler Interviewed by David Barsamian Toronto, Ontario 25 March 2013 What’s going on in Canada? Justin Bieber? Snow? Hockey? Since 2006, the vast country of 35 million people has been led by Stephen Harper. He is prime minister and head of the Conservative Party. Earlier in his political career… Continue reading →
Dennis Kucinich Santa Barbara, CA February 8, 2013 The U.S. has the world’s most powerful military machine. Its navy controls the seas, its air force the skies. Almost 70 years after the end of World War Two, its armies occupy bases from Germany and Italy to South Korea and Japan. Its CIA-operated… Continue reading →
Paul Cienfuegos Missoula, MT March 1, 2012 Modern corporations trace their origins to the trading companies of imperial Europe more than three centuries ago. Their rise in power and influence has been a steady trajectory to the point where today they are the dominant institution in society… Continue reading →
by Robert L. Borosage Washington’s obsession with deficits is illogical for two reasons: first, there is no sign of accelerating inflation; interest rates are near record lows, as global investors seek shelter in US securities from economic turmoil abroad. We will never have a better opportunity to… Continue reading →
Michelle Alexander Santa Fe, NM September 12, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Michelle Alexander speak for herself here. Michelle Alexander is an associate professor of law at Ohio State University and holds a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race… Continue reading →
Juliet Schor Northampton, MA July 28, 2008 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Juliet Schor speak for herself here. Juliet Schor is Professor of Sociology at Boston College. Before joining Boston College, she taught at Harvard in the Department of Economics. She is author of many… Continue reading →
by Dave Lindorff Summer 2011 (appearing in Hopeless: Barack Obama and the Politics of Illusion, edited by Jeffrey St. Clair and Joshua Frank) When Barack Obama was running for president, back in 2008, he was pretty definite about his seemingly progressive position on Social Security. While he… Continue reading →
Medea Benjamin Eugene, OR July 1, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Medea Benjamin speak for herself here. Medea Benjamin is a renowned peace activist and social justice advocate. She travels around the world and documents human rights violations. She’s co-founder of Global… Continue reading →
Maude Barlow Denver, CO January 27, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Maude Barlow speak for herself here. Maude Barlow is the National Chairperson of The Council of Canadians, Canada’s largest public advocacy organization, and the co-founder of the Blue Planet Project, working… Continue reading →
Glenn Greenwald Socialism 2012 Rosemont, IL June 28, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Glenn Greenwald speak for himself here. Glenn Greenwald is an attorney and the author of How Would a Patriot Act?, Great American Hypocrites, and Liberty and Justice for Some. He is the… Continue reading →
by John Cusack From Truthout Tuesday, September 4, 2012 I wrote this a while back after Romney got the nom. In light of the blizzard of bullshit coming at us in the next few months I thought I would put it out now. ______________ Now that the Republican primary circus is over, I started to think… Continue reading →
Morris Berman Elliot Bay Bookstore Seattle, WA November 4, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Morris Berman speak for himself here. From the boarded-up storefronts to foreclosed homes to the homeless and unemployed, the signs of decay in the U.S. are all too apparent. The… Continue reading →
by Paul Buchheit Appearing in Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter Reprinted from CounterPunch. Paul Buchheit teaches Economic Inequality at DePaul University. He is the founder and developer of social justice and educational websites (Us Against Greed, Pay Up Now, and Rapping History) and the editor… Continue reading →
by Jack A. Smith editor, Activist Newsletter This year’s presidential campaign is taking place within an extremely conservative era in American political history that will substantially influence the domestic and foreign priorities of the next administration, regardless of whether it’s headed by… Continue reading →
Please watch this short video: Amazing speech of Iraq Veteran Against War. If tyranny and oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy…. The loss of Liberty at home is to be charged to the provisions against danger, real or imagined, from abroad…. –James Madison Continue reading →
walmart's effect What effect does Walmart have on American jobs? Thanks to Shy Girl for this infographic. Continue reading →
Max Rameau Eugene, OR April 19, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Max Rameau speak for himself here. Max Rameau is a community organizer. He is Executive Director of Movement Catalyst. He helped establish Take Back the Land, which organizes resistance to foreclosures and… Continue reading →
CHRIS WILLIAMS Interviewed by David Barsamian Santa Fe, New Mexico 20 March 2012 Chris Williams Interviewed by David Barsamian Santa Fe, NM March 20, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Chris Williams speak for himself here. Chris Williams is a long-time environmental activist… Continue reading →
Andrew Nikiforuk Interviewed by David Barsamian Calgary, AB, Canada March 2, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Andrew Nikiforuk speak for himself here. Andrew Nikiforuk is an award-winning Canadian journalist. His articles appear in major newspapers and magazines. He is the… Continue reading →
By Jack A. Smith, Hudson Valley Activist Newsletter editor Less than six months before the November presidential elections in an exceptionally distressed United States the narrow, unpleasant parameters of political possibility are emerging. Two alternatives confront the American people, both to the… Continue reading →
Michael Moore New York, NY March 17, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Michael Moore speak for himself here. Michael Moore first brought his humorous and progressive analysis to mainstream audiences with the award-winning documentary Roger & Me. His Bowling for Columbine won an… Continue reading →
William Black Kansas City, MO November 29, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to William Black speak for himself here. William Black is Associate Professor of Economics and Law at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He was litigation director of the Federal Home Loan Bank Board… Continue reading →
Gar Alperovitz Interviewed by David Barsamian Cambridge, MA January 19, 2012 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Gar Alperovitz speak for himself here. Gar Alperovitz is Professor of Political Economy at the University of Maryland and co-founder of the Democracy Collaborative. He is… Continue reading →
interview with Richard Wolff by David Barsaminan New York, NY December 29, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Richard Wolff speak for himself here. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor… Continue reading →
Check out this brief and crucial history of the United States… In less than 23 minutes, you’ll get the big picture. Let your life be a friction to stop the machine. Continue reading →
by Paul Cienfuegos Eugene, OR May 16, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Paul Cienfuegos deliver this address here. Paul Cienfuegos lectures and leads workshops on dismantling corporate rule. He co-founded Democracy Unlimited of Humboldt County in northern California. He’s based… Continue reading →
by Jack Smith (in Activist Newsletter) Part 1: Obama’s interpretation of the war President Obama bid farewell to the Iraq war after nearly 9 years of conflict in a November 14 speech to troops of the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg, NC. He virtually damned the war with the faintest of praise. The problem… Continue reading →
Our new Secretary of “Defense,” Leon Panetta, insists, while announcing the supposed end to our war in Iraq, while referring to our soldiers who died there, that those lives were not lost in vain. Yeah? He regurgitates that cheap clause, used again and again since Lincoln famously used it at… Continue reading →
by Richard Wolff Santa Fe, NM September 13, 2011 available from Alternative Radio You can listen to Richard Wolff deliver this address here. Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor at the New School in New York… Continue reading →
by Naomi Klein, the author of Shock Doctrine, currently working on a book about climate change. Her article originally appeared in The Nation. What the right gets–and the left doesn’t–about the revolutionary power of climate change. This is the most powerful article I’ve seen on explaining what’s… Continue reading →
by Richard Wolff Interviewed by David Barsamian Santa Fe, NM September 12, 2011 available from Alternative Radio Richard Wolff is Professor of Economics Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and currently a visiting professor at the New School in New York. He is the author of… Continue reading →
The following is an excerpt from War Is a Lie by David Swanson, who served as press secretary for Dennis Kucinich’s 2004 presidential campaign. He is the cofounder of WarIsACrime.org (formerly AfterDownStreet.org) and was instrumental in exposing the Downing Street Minutes and other evidence of Iraq… Continue reading →
by Jodie Evans Interviewed by David Barsamian Boulder, CO August 7, 2011 available from Alternative Radio Jodie Evans is a veteran activist with more than 30 years experience in organizing for social change. She cofounded Code Pink with Medea Benjamin. They’ve also edited the book Stop The Next War… Continue reading →
by Fred Nagel, Rhinebeck, NY in a letter to the Woodstock Times September 22, 2011 Even for a politician who has made his career out of serving the rich and well connected, these must seem like dismal times. Back in Chicago, all Obama had to do was to obey the corrupt Democratic machine. And he did… Continue reading →
by Uri Avnery, September 24, 2011 following President Obama’s speech before the UN, giving his reasons for the US not supporting Palestine First this (where President Obama was more right wing than most Israelis [see this]) and then: A WONDERFUL SPEECH. A beautiful speech. The language expressive… Continue reading →
by Naomi Klein, journalist, author, and social activist calls for system change through a relocalizing of our economies and a fundamental shift away from market-based “free trade” globalization. Please watch this 11-minute video We cannot deal with climate change unless we deal with the underlying… Continue reading →
Part 2: Problems ahead for Obama? by Jack S. Smith, Activist Newsletter The New Yorker magazine published a memorable front cover a year after President Barack Obama assumed office. It was a four-panel cartoon-like drawing by artist Barry Blitt of a man walking on water, a reference to the Apostle… Continue reading →
Part 1: What both parties are up to by Jack S. Smith, Activist Newsletter When was it that the most extremely disturbed inmates seized control of the madhouse known as the American political system? We know they are wielding decisive influence within the two-party structure by their destructive… Continue reading →
by Thom Hartmann Published on Monday, January 26, 2009, by CommonDreams.org Thom Hartmann (thom@thomhartmann.com) is a Project Censored Award-winning New York Times best-selling author, and host of a nationally syndicated daily progressive talk program, The Thom Hartmann Show. His most recent books… Continue reading →
by Ilyse Hogue August 10, 2011 This article appeared in the August 29-September 5, 2011, edition of The Nation. Most of the endless rehashing of the debt deal has correctly focused on the fact that corporate interests and Tea Party politics have prevailed again, at the expense of the middle class… Continue reading →
by Helen Caldicott, speech delivered in Albequerque, NM 20 March 2011 available from Alternative Radio Helen Caldicott, an Australian-born pediatrician, is a world-renowned environmental activist. She was the founding president of Physicians for Social Responsibility, an organization which was… Continue reading →
Here’s from my friend Fred Nagel Now is the right time to revisit the “lesser of two evils” theory of governance. As destructive as Obama has been to the interests of working people, the Republicans always appear to be just a little bit worse. And so it goes for the next election cycle, American… Continue reading →
by Gar Alperovitz, speech delivered at Iowa State University, Ames, IA 7 November 1994 available from Alternative Radio Gar Alperovitz is one of the most highly regarded experts on Hiroshima and U.S. policy. He is professor of political economy at the University of Maryland. His articles appear in… Continue reading →
by Stephen Bezruchka, speech delivered at Olympia Community Center Olympia, WA 29 May 2010 available from Alternative Radio Stephen Bezruchka is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Global Health at the University of Washington. He worked for many years as an emergency physician in Seattle. His… Continue reading →
On January 21, 2010, with its ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations are persons, entitled by the U.S. Constitution to buy elections and run our government. Human beings are people; corporations are legal fictions. We, the People of the… Continue reading →
Over the past century, America’s rich made their millions and billions through the use of public assets shared by everyone. By virtue of those profits, they have not only a moral, but a rational obligation to pay more for the upkeep of public services. See this article. And see this article by… Continue reading →
Those accusations that Obama is a wimp getting pushed around by the right wing are false. It’s a bad-cop-good-cop game. See this article by Jeff Cohen. Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont — widely seen as “America’s Senator” — is so disgusted by recent White House actions that he called… Continue reading →
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: The problems today are not the the evil actions of the bad people, but the appalling silence and inaction of the good people. Linda Milazzo: Peace and non-violent solutions are beyond the capacity of this US government. We The People must govern. As an American, it is my… Continue reading →
The liberal, progressive base appears to have no breaking point with the Democrats here in Washington. And that’s true for—that’s also true for the liberal intelligentsia. They have no—when you ask them, “Do you have any breaking point? How bad do these Democrats have to be, even though the… Continue reading →
She comes to Washington at the request of Harry Reid to head a special congressional oversight entity, pursuant to the Wall Street collapse and bailout, does a sterling job, has a heavy cross-examination of Timothy Geithner in public. He didn’t like that, and he never forgot that. And she is—then… Continue reading →
Among multiple layers of deception and newspeak, the official Washington spin on the strategic quagmire in Afghanistan simply does not hold. No more than “50-75 ‘al-Qaeda types’ in Afghanistan”, according to the CIA, have been responsible for draining the US government by no less than US $10 billion… Continue reading →
by Ravi Batra in Truthout About eight years ago, there was frenzied and furious talk about WMDs, or weapons of mass destruction. Both the frenzy and the fury came from President George W. Bush and his administration, prior to the US invasion of Iraq in March 2003 and soon thereafter. The president’s… Continue reading →
Check out this article: Since there has been a lot of debate here at 13.7 (and everywhere) about global warming, and what is or isn’t factual or good science, I thought it would be a good idea to bring out some of the basic science behind what we know and what we don’t know about this important… Continue reading →
See Democracy Now!. I find it tragic that we’re talking about cutting Medicare and Social Security in this environment, when we, first of all, don’t really need a budget-balancing plan right now. The budget-balancing plan we need in the future is really related to the rise in healthcare costs… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges, interviewed by David Barsamian Santa Fe, NM 18 May 2011 available from Alternative Radio Chris Hedges is an award-winning journalist who has covered wars in the Balkans, the Middle East, and Central America. He writes a weekly column for Truthdig.org and is a senior fellow at The… Continue reading →
by Robert Jensen, speech delivered at the Monkey Wrench Bookstore, Austin, TX, 10 February 2011 available from Alternative Radio Robert Jensen is professor of journalism at the University of Texas at Austin. He is the author of Citizens of the Empire, The Heart of Whiteness, and All My Bones Shake… Continue reading →
by Arun Gupta, speech delivered at the Red Emma’s Bookstore, Baltimore, MD, 15 April 2011 available from Alternative Radio Arun Gupta, journalist and activist, was founding editor of The Indypendent newspaper in New York. He’s a regular contributor to Alternet and Z. He also appears on Democracy Now… Continue reading →
by the late Howard Zinn, speech delivered at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, 21 March 1991 [just after “Operation Desert Storm,” also known as the “First Gulf War,” even though there had been a previous “Gulf War” between Iraq and Iran; the President Bush he refers to is Bush 41] The audio of… Continue reading →
This is from Al-Jazeera English by William I. Robinson, professor of sociology and global studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara: The global economic crisis and the attack on immigrant rights are bound together in a web of 21st century fascism. “The crisis of global capitalism is… Continue reading →
This from Jeffrey D. Sachs at The Cap Times (Madison, WI): “The world is drowning in corporate fraud, and the problems are probably greatest in rich countries — those with supposedly “good governance.” Poor-country governments probably accept more bribes and commit more offenses, but it is rich… Continue reading →
Here is what historian Adam Hochschild said on Democracy Now! about massive graveyards of war dead: This was a thought that occurred to me, walking through the First World War cemeteries. Anybody who’s interested in the First World War eventually goes to the old Western Front in France and Belgium… Continue reading →
Take a look at the graphic here and look at the sobering graph there, too. Continue reading →
Amidst all the jingoistic chest-thumping about the assassination of Bin Laden, why not get another perspective? Check out all these articles before joining the woot-woot cheering: Obama has doubled down on Bush Administration policy of targeted assassination, with Jeremy Scahill. “It was some sort… Continue reading →
Check out this article in Rolling Stone, with illustrative graphs: The budget has more of what Americans say they want — new taxes on the rich and cuts to defense — than either the GOP’s or the president’s budget. And it has none of what Americans say they hate: changes to the social compact that’s… Continue reading →
An op-ed by Margaret Kimberley in Eurasia Review: The latest Wikileaks revelations about the prison camp at Guantánamo bring all the horror [that] began with Bush [and that] candidate Obama pledged to end…. He obviously had no intention of ever doing so, because two years into his term, the prison… Continue reading →
by Brendan Barrett in Our World 2.0. Nothing comes close to the degree of change happening in biodiversity, I find it stunning that until the next asteroid slams into this planet, it’s going to be humans more than any force in the universe .. dictating the future course of life, and it is stunning… Continue reading →
Check out this little video (with text printed out) and then the whole 14-page analysis by “Mr. Y”. We are underinvesting in the real sources of national power – our youth, our infrastructure and our economy. The United States sees the world through the lens of threats, while failing to understand… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges, a speech he made at Union Square in New York City in April 15, during a protest outside a branch office of the Bank of America: We stand today before the gates of one of our temples of finance. It is a temple where greed and profit are the highest good, where self-worth is… Continue reading →
by Chris Hedges in truthdig: The uprisings in the Middle East, the unrest that is tearing apart nations such as the Ivory Coast, the bubbling discontent in Greece, Ireland and Britain and the labor disputes in states such as Wisconsin and Ohio presage the collapse of globalization. They presage a… Continue reading →
Check out Big History. Backed by stunning illustrations, David Christian narrates a complete history of the universe, from the Big Bang to the Internet, in a riveting 17.4 minutes. This is “Big History”: an enlightening, wide-angle look at complexity, life, and humanity, set against our slim share… Continue reading →