August 2017 - Toward Freedom

Protesters outside of the Boise event hosting Charles Murray.

White Supremacist Charles Murray Met with Protests in Idaho as National Mobilizations Against Racism Spread

Sam Mayfield and Ben Dangl August 29, 2017 Sam Mayfield and Ben Dangl

At a time when activists around the US are confronting Nazis, white supremacists, and fascists in the streets and in power, Idahoan protesters took a stand against racism in their predominantly Republican state. On Saturday, August 28, dozens of people gathered in Boise to voice their opposition to a political fundraising event hosting notorious white supremacist and sociologist Charles Murray. “His research and his so-called science is used to justify neo-Nazism and white nationalist movements,” one protester explained.

US missile cruisers and aircraft carriers conducting joint exercises with Japanese Navy in Philippine Sea, March, 2017. Photo: US Navy

Breaking America’s Cold War Addiction in Korea

Suzy Kim August 29, 2017 Suzy Kim

Before the latest clash erupts into a real nuclear war, we must commit to truly ending the Cold War by demanding immediate and unconditional talks with North Korea, in which the United States also works toward a nuclear-weapons free world. The recent anniversary of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a sobering reminder of what is at stake.

US B-1B Lancer bombing in Afghanistan. President Obama dropped 26,171 bombs in his last year in office.

“Attack We Will:” Trump’s Most Racist Rant Was on Continuing the War in Afghanistan

Brian Terrell August 29, 2017 Brian Terrell

In a speech last week, President Trump announced that the 17 year old war in Afghanistan will go on pretty much as it has. The war against Afghanistan is as much a war about race and white supremacy as was the Civil War. And the violence that we see in American streets is a direct and inevitable result of the violence of our county’s wars abroad.

Number of People Displaced by Climate Change Could Reach One Billion by 2050

Baher Kamal August 28, 2017 Baher Kamal

Imagine a world with as many as one billion people facing harsh climate change impacts such as devastating droughts or floods, extreme weather, destruction of land and natural resources, and the consequences of famine and starvation. The speed with which climate change has been taking place might lead to such a scenario by 2050. If so, 1 in 9 human beings would be on the move by then.

Top 5 ways Man-made Climate Change made Hurricane Harvey much Worse

Juan Cole August 28, 2017 Juan Cole

Source: Juan Cole

The images from Houston and its environs are heart-breaking and we at IC wish all those affected a speedy and safe return to normality.

Extreme weather events are associated with climate change, and whenever they occur, they raise the question of their relationship to that process.

Human-induced climate change did not “cause” Hurricane Harvey. There have after all been hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico all along, and some of them have been monstrous. So can we relate Hurricane Harvey to human pumping of carbon dioxide and methane into the atmosphere by driving cars, heating or cooling buildings, etc.? read more

Don’t feed the trolls — how to combat the alt-right

Kazu Haga August 28, 2017 Kazu Haga

Source: Waging Nonviolence

Nazism and white supremacy are forms of violence. Let’s start there.

The constitution does not protect violence, and I’m happy to see that the California chapter of the ACLU has taken a stand against protecting the “free speech” of hate groups.

But with or without marching permits, it is clear that public displays of hatred are a growing trend in the United States. And as much as I don’t want to give these groups more attention, it is also clear that simply ignoring them is not going to make them go away. read more