A War in Venezuela?
[Note by web-poster Jean B: This article was published before the Jan. 3, 2026, U.S. attack on Venezuela and kidnapping of President Maduro; now over 100 people in small boats in the Caribbean have been killed; the attack on Venezuela killed an estimated 90 people; several oil tankers have been seized; and 2 kidnapped Venezuelans are in a U.S. prison.] by John M Repp Is the Trump administration preparing for a war against Venezuela, or are they just threatening them in order to get something? The Trump Administration’s repeated strikes in the Caribbean, near the Venezuelan coast, have shocked the world. They claim they are destroying boats running drugs, but the usual treatment for such a crime is to stop…
Letters to the Editor & Cartoon: Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse
Click here to see the last page of the January 2026 Newsletter. [Full URL https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/01/lastpageofPC2026.pdf ]
The Effect of the Nuclear Freeze Movement and the Need for a Nuclear Abolition Movement Now
by John M Repp The chart on the next page shows us the number of nuclear weapons that could be delivered in a first strike. The total amount of weapons was reduced after the Nuclear Freeze campaign of the 1980’s, a mass movement initially organized by Randall Forsberg. On June 12, 1982, the largest peace rally in U.S. history was held in New York as the Second United Nations Special Session on Disarmament was happening. There were approximately a million participants in that rally. The chart looks like a mountain peak with the high point in the early 1980’s. After that there were negotiations between Reagan and Gorbachev, and the numbers came down. At the October 2025 meeting of Northwest Against Nuclear…
Paying for a Green New Deal
by John M Repp China over the last 45 years has developed a moderately prosperous society with a huge middle-class. Their middle-class is now at least three times larger than the middle-class in the United States, where unfortunately the middle-class is shrinking. In the process China increased their money supply by over 5000%. According to the economic theory used by economists in the United States and most of the western world, that large an increase in the money supply should have caused massive, maybe even runaway inflation. But China did not have massive inflation. How do we explain that? Capitalism has several forms. We in the U.S. have financial capitalism instead of industrial capitalism. We have hedge funds buying a…
A Review of the 2025 film Nuremburg
by John M Repp When shown at a Toronto film festival in September of 2025, the new film Nuremburg got a four minute standing ovation. But it is not being shown widely, maybe because it is so powerful and reminds the Republicans who are supporting the Trump Administration what happens to people who support a cruel dictator. The film tells the story of the famous series of trials of high ranking Nazi leaders that the Allies captured at the end of World War II. Four of the countries who fought Nazi Germany, Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union and the United States, charged the Nazi leaders with several crimes, such as crimes against the peace i.e. starting a war, and…
Mamdani’s Victory in the General Election for Mayor of New York City: What it Means.
by John M Repp Zohran Mamdani will be the next mayor of New York City. He won the November 4th, 2025 general election in a three-way race defeating former New York Governor Mario Cuomo who ran as an independent and Republican Curis Sliwa. In the primary election held on June 24, 2025, Zohran Mamdani won the race for the Democratic nomination with 56.4% of the vote. That race was a major upset that has given progressives the idea that running on a progressive platform, with specific, concrete planks can lead to victory. NYC has ranked choice voting and some public financing of elections. Mamdani is a 33 year-old state lawmaker, who is a Muslim critical of the genocide Israel is…
We Can Stop Global Warming: A Reason for Hope in the Long Term
Article author and newsletter editor, John M Repp, discusses the evidence for global warming, and the potential that solar energy holds for preventing the devastation continued use of fossil fuels would cause. Furthermore, the production of solar energy is becoming increasingly efficient, practical, and affordable. John shared information and insights from Bill McKibben’s new book “Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization”. (New York: W.W. Norton, 2025) Read the full article at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/HereComesthe-Sun.pdf
Unarmed Civilian Protection in the West Bank of Palestine Needs Our Help
by David Berrian Ras al-Auja is the last Bedouin community in the West Bank of Palestine. They get by from raising sheep and goats and doing just a bit of agriculture. There had been many other Bedouin communities in the area, but because of Israeli settler harassment and violence the families in those villages have had to flee. Ras al-Auja is the only Bedouin community remaining that has been able to resist ethnic cleansing up until now. The families in Ras al-Auja are trying to stay. However, they face almost daily incidents of harassment, trespass, humiliation, theft, and assault. Israeli police protect the settlers even when settlers are clearly committing violence on the Palestinians. Women are afraid to go out…
Letter to Editor: Eliminating Nuclear Weapons
Cascadia Daily News, Bellingham, WA (posted on Aug 5, 2025) Editor, In 1945, only one country in the world, the USA, had the world’s supply of two nuclear bombs. “Little Boy” (the nickname given to the bomb) was dropped on Aug. 6 in Hiroshima and “Fat Man” (the nickname given to the other bomb) was dropped on Aug. 9 on Nagasaki. Over 210,000 were killed. Thousands died from radiation poisoning later. Let’s remember this on Aug. 6. In 2025, there are nine countries with nuclear bombs and 15,000 nuclear bombs in the world. Both the U.S. and Russia have 6,000-plus each. The explosive yield of the Hiroshima bomb was 15,000 kilotons of TNT. In 2025, one nuclear warhead on a…
Authoritarianism and Resistance: What the World Can Teach Us
Stephen Zunes’s Keynote Address at the May 17, 2025, Western Washington Fellowship of Reconciliation Spring Assembly from an artificial intelligence (AI) transcription, edited by Cindy Cole and John Repp. Available at https://wwfor.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/SA2025Keynote.pdf. And if you’d rather see and hear Stephen’s talk, the YouTube video of Stephen’s talk and other parts of the Assembly is available; see links at https://wwfor.org/spring-assembly-2025/.
