David Swanson

These were among the complaints registered the last time this nation had a king:” “He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good. “He has forbidden his Governors to […]

1. Toilet Paper. Instead of hoarding toilet paper for the coming disaster and anarchy that should never be out of your mind if you want to remain easily manipulable by cynical demagogues, invest in providing […]

I stopped by a corporate chain bookstore this week and checked out the “Current Affairs” section. I was a little surprised to discover that according to a dozen or more books dominating the display we are all […]

The funny thing about the bill that the Senate just passed that lets presidents and the military lock you up without a charge or a trial — well, not funny ha ha but funny unusual — is that the basic bill to […]

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s fervent hope for years was that Japan would attack the United States. This would permit the United States (not legally, but politically) to fully enter World War II in […]

Whistle-blowing in our federal government may soon be a thing of the past, not because whistleblowers face more vicious retribution than ever before — although that is true; and not because important acts of […]

Feints and baby steps in the direction of eventually ending a massive crime are not enough. Hoping to meet a distant deadline for ending a war that cannot be justified for a single day is not enough. A new […]

Can occupations survive a winter of global weirding, escalated police brutality, and the corporate media’s venom? Should they?In some parts of the country there will be no cold weather. In others, police abuses […]

Weaponized UAVs (unmanned aerial vehicles), also known as drones, have their own caucus in Congress, and the Pentagon’s plan is to give them their own state as well.Under this plan, 7 million acres (or 11,000 […]

One of the most valuable benefits of putting political action into the form of nonviolent encampments is that we learn each other’s stories as we occupy our public parks and squares. Here’s a story from the […]

Last week, President Obama racked up several more broken campaign promises as he pushed through Congress three new job-killing corporate trade agreements. The Senate Finance Committee was quite open about the […]

Thanks in large part to the New York and national corporate media a massive campaign to shift power away from giant corporations and into the hands of the people is now afoot all across this continent. It was […]

Back around May or June a bunch of us announced plans for this coming Thursday, October 6th, to occupy Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C., not for a march or a rally, and not for a day or a weekend, but to create […]

“How many PRT [Provincial Reconstruction Team] staff members does it take to screw in a light bulb? One to hire a contractor who fails to complete the job and two to write the press release in the dark.” A FOB […]

So, here we are 50 years and 8 months tomorrow from the day on which President Dwight Eisenhower, on his way out of office, warned: “In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of […]

Here’s a simple proposal. I’m sure it’s too much to ask for, but I’m asking anyway. Let’s set aside a single month, say the month of April, following each federal election, and for that single month behave like […]

Sigmund Freud once mentioned the defense offered by a man who was accused by his neighbor of having returned a kettle in a damaged condition. In the first place, he had returned the kettle undamaged; in the […]

No, not 29 million job offers. I’m no better at applying for jobs than you are, and my town offers nothing but dead-end McJobs or positions in the military industrial complex, just like yours. I mean I just […]

“Shrinking government” in American political discourse has, for decades now, meant the following. We enlarge the government’s budget through taxation and penalties on working people and through borrowing and […]

Former National Coordinator for Security, Infrastructure Protection, and Counter-Terrorism Richard Clarke suggests that former CIA Director George Tenet blocked the sharing of information within the government on […]