The Drug War’s reach is global. As illicit drug use is on the rise in Vermont, another dimension of the Drug War is playing out with unprecedented violence south of the US-Mexico border. Join author Dawn Paley in Burlington, VT on Wednesday, December 17th for a book launch and discussion on her new book Drug War Capitalism.
The United States has become in the expression derived from onetime nautical practice a “loose cannon,” that is, a power whose actions are unpredictable, uncontrollable, and dangerous to itself and to others. As a result, it is trusted by almost no-one, even when many countries and political groups call upon it for assistance in specific ways in the short run.
Source: Tom Dispatch
Go to war and every politician will thank you, and they’ll continue to do so — with monuments and statues, war museums and military cemeteries — long after you’re dead. But who thanks those who refused to fight, even in wars that most people later realized were tragic mistakes? Consider the 2003 invasion of Iraq, now widely recognized as igniting an ongoing disaster. America’s politicians still praise Iraq War veterans to the skies, but what senator has a kind word to say about the hundreds of thousands of protesters who marched and demonstrated before the invasion was even launched to try to stop our soldiers from risking their lives in the first place?
Source: TeleSUR English
The evidence from Thomas Piketty, the United Nations, and other sources is quite conclusive that we now have rates of inequality in the North and globally that are unprecedented. Neoliberal policies that have reigned since the 1980s, in the form of Reaganism and the Third Way in the North, and in the shape of IMF-imposed structural adjustment and WTO-compliant trade liberalization in the South, have been responsible for this bleak situation. In his celebrated book Capital in the 21st Century, Piketty says that, in fact, things are likely to become even worse:
There is a fire that burns within everyday people. Fueled when disrespected or dehumanized, this fire ignites when people in our community are shot and killed by police. It is nurtured when those same people realize they are not alone, and learn that this rage is shared by many.
On December 3rd over 25 community members and activists from various social justice organizations based in Burlington, VT convened in conjunction with #UStired2, a nationwide effort to demand that the US cut funding to Mexico following a wave of human rights rights violations in the country.
Copyright Toward Freedom 2019