A Few Steps to an Abyss and a Way to Avoid It in the US: a review of The Order of the Day by Eric Vuillard (2017) and of a recent article in Harper’s magazine entitled “Rebirth of a Nation” November 2018 by John M Repp Order of the Day is a short, very powerful book about Nazi Germany. Translated from the French, the prize-winning author, Eric Vuillard picks out a few events in the long string of events, i.e. “orders of the day”, that historians describe when they tell the whole story. The accounts of the two events make clear that individuals of the ruling economic and political circles missed chances to stop the Nazis if not actually supporting…

New NAFTA is the beginning of the end for ‘free trade’ The ‘USMCA’ deal steps away from the failed globalization model, and begins to recognize our national interests. But we can do better. By STAN SORSCHER, first published in The Strand, October 19, 2018 http://www.thestand.org/2018/10/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-free-trade/ (Oct. 19, 2018) —  The United States, Mexico, and Canada just renegotiated the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). At a high level, the new deal underscores the political fact that the free trade approach to globalization is exhausted, and we are moving in a different direction. For decades, establishment thinking told us that “free trade” was the only possible approach for managing globalization. The 2016 presidential campaign and NAFTA 2.0 have burst that bubble.…

Another Way People Power Can Help Prevent Nuclear War (Other Than Pressuring Our Leaders) a review of Open Borders: A Personal Story of Love, Loss and Anti-War Activism. Betsy Bell (Kenmore, WA: 2018) by John M Repp Betsy Bell lives in West Seattle and is a neighbor of one of the activists in West Seattle Neighbors for Peace and Justice, which is part of the coalition Washington Against Nuclear Weapons  https://www.wanwcoalition.org/ organized by Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility. This is a memoir by Betsy that was just published this year and it tells of citizen diplomacy in the 1980’s. The Cold War tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union heated up after Ronald Reagan came into office in…

Is Medicare for All ”Socialist”? by Martha Koester, first published in Fall 2018 Health Care For All – Washington Newsletter http://www.healthcareforallwa.org/   According to the traditional definition, no. It is a question about who owns the means of production, though socialists have never entirely agreed on who should own the means of production. The socialists who led the Russian revolution thought that the state should own them and operate them in the interests of the proletariat, which would supposedly eventually lead to communism and the dissolution of the state. But “left socialists,” now commonly known as anarchists, thought that ownership should be in the hands of small collectives of workers and that the state should have a minimal role in…

by Larry Kerschner, peacepoet A recent Kaiser tracking poll found that voters view “corruption in Washington” as the “most important issue” in the upcoming midterm election, with 30 percent putting it at the top of their list. Health care came in second at 27 percent, and the economy/jobs took third at 25 percent. Representative Jaime Herrera-Beutler has been an out-spoken supporter of what is probably the most corrupt administration in US history. Paul Manafort, 2016 Campaign Chairman to President Trump was convicted of filing false tax returns and bank fraud. Scott Pruittt, Trump’s Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency resigned citing increasing numbers of investigations of corruption in his administration. Albert Kelly, EPA Superfund Task Force Director and top aide…

A book review of Wilkinson, R. and K. Pickett (2018). Inner Level: how more equal societies reduce stress, restore sanity and improve everybody’s wellbeing. London, Allen Lane. By Stephen Bezruchka MD, MPH, Departments of Health Services & Global Health, School of Public Health, University of Washington   What is your world view and what is important to you, your family and friends?  To what do you want to devote your time and energy in order to change in society? I faced that question almost 30 years ago after working as an emergency physician for decades, essentially putting bandages on people that were removed when they left the ER.  I also came to see that health in the U.S. was getting…

The things going on in Gaza are really bothering me.  An Opinion By Carl Nakajima  Carl is a Catholic Worker and has been part of Earth Care not Warfare and the Tuesday Downtown Peace Vigil   The things going on in Gaza are really bothering me.  Jewish people should understand better than many of us about people losing their land or being without the necessities of life because they have gone through similar circumstances.   Native American and black people were persecuted for hundreds of years, but Jewish people have been persecuted for thousands of years and everywhere they went. (pogroms, inquisitions, Holocaust, etc.) People can usually understand better about other people’s pain if they experience the same pain –…

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The Myth about Hiroshima by John M Repp Of all places to hear someone talking about Hiroshima and implying that the atom bomb caused the Japanese to surrender. But that’s what I heard in Seattle at the 2018 event “From Hiroshima to Hope”. http://fromhiroshimatohope.org/ I heard it not from the organizers, not from the speakers or musicians, but from a person standing around waiting for the lantern-lighting ceremony to begin. I also once heard the same myth from an old man who told me his life was saved by the bomb. He was about to be drafted when Japan announced their intent to surrender on August 15, 1945. The dropping of the atomic bombs on Hiroshima on August 6, 1945…

Larry Kerschner letter to the editor of 6/20/18 The Trump Administration’s ripping children from their parents is a heartless method of blackmail to gain leverage against immigrants who come to the US for asylum.  Trump makes this plain in his statement of “No Wall – No Children” The ACLU released a report documenting the abuses that minors face in US detention facilities including being sexually assaulted, denied medical care, and run over by vehicles. Actor George Takei stated that the situation in these internment camps are worse than the camps he and his family were forced into during WWII. Jenn Budd, 47, a US Customs and Border Protection officer from 1995 to 2001 says there is no excuse for current…