Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox

November 29, 2015 GUEST : Gilbert Mercier TOPIC : The Orwellian Empire This week, Cindy chats with Gilbert Mercier--author of  The Orwellian Empire and Editor of News Junkie Post . CLICK PHOTO TO ORDER/FOR MORE INFO ********************************************************************** BONUS GUEST Dylan Avery Loose Change re-release! CLICK FOR MORE INFO Listen to Dylan's Soapbox interview about   his documentary , Black and Blue    

 CLICK HERE TO LISTEN On “Speaking Truth to Empire” on KFCF 88.1 Free Speech Radio for Central California Dan Yaseen interviews David Swanson , an author, activist, journalist, and radio host. He is director of WorldBeyondWar.org and campaign coordinator for RootsAction.org . Swanson's books include War Is A Lie . He blogs at DavidSwanson.org and WarIsACrime.org . He hosts Talk Nation Radio . He is a 2015 Nobel Peace Prize Nominee .

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX NOVEMBER 22, 2015 Today, on the 52nd anniversary of the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, Cindy chats with actor/comedian/activist/author/raconteur John Barbour about his connection to the Kennedy assassination via his many conversations with New Orleans District Attorney Jim Garrison . Cindy and John note many instances of serendipity that led to his new documentary (premiering today) about those interviews with Jim Garrison ( JFK ) and to this installment of The Soapbox. Please listen to this show and then watch: John Barbour's Last Words on the Garrison Tapes

It sure is lonely being an antiwar activist in the age of Obama.  If a Republican president were killing civilians all over the world, executing American citizens without due process and even bombing hospitals, would  there be large scale antiwar protests as there were prior to the election of Obama? Would Democrats protest the war crimes that define current U.S. foreign policy if a Bush or Trump were the evil-doer? Will the anemic peace movement be resurrected if a Republican is elected and simply continues on the current course, or will Democrats make excuses for mass murder, chaos and failure as they do for their own candidates? Moral consistency and objectivity seem anathema to partisanship. So long as people choose party loyalty over moral conviction, establishment politicians will attempt to hijack the peace movement and use it solely as a tool for tribal division. If we do not transcend the divide-and conquer paradigm, the peace mo

Black Ops Poster  by Genius-MasterminD , DeviantArt (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0) Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Nov. 22, 2015 Since the Paris attacks, I’ve noticed a predictable proliferation of the word “ mastermind ” in corporate media reports. I say predictable because whenever the “good guys” take a hit, it’s essential to the narrative that their opponent be presented as some kind of evil genius who has dealt them a temporary setback that will only serve to bring out the best in them. In this case, of course, the masterminds are ISIS in general and was Abdelhamid Abaaoud , in particular.  This is how males do things (sports, business, war, etc.). Even when we’re clueless or merely engaging in violence for sheer pleasure (translation: almost always), we have to present the illusion that we’re in the midst of some kind of epic, noble mission. This clip from Gangs of New York helps illustrate what I’m trying to describe: You see, bad guys are to be

Photo credit: Mickey Z. Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Nov. 18, 2015 “Reading the news and it sure looks bad. They won't give peace a chance. That was just a dream some of us had.” (Joni Mitchell) I’ve written 13 books. My work appears in at least 25 anthologies (I’ve lost count), and has been translated into maybe eight or 10 languages. From print to web to chapbooks and far beyond, I’ve authored tens of thousands of articles, essays, poems, blogs, social media posts, etc. and I’ve helped produce a wide array of publications -- from photocopied zines to newsstand glossies. I’ve done talks and lectures and workshops and panels and teach-ins from coast to coast in eclectic venues from tiny community centers to major universities -- with audiences ranging in size from single digits to several thousand. I’ve also appeared on TV, radio, web-based media, and have been live-streamed more times than even the NSA knows. People have written pl

Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Nov. 12, 2015 Rev·o·lu·tion - revəˈlo͞oSH(ə)n (noun): a forcible overthrow of a government or social order in favor of a new system. The word on the street (and by “street,” I mean the internet) is that a 72-year-old white male career politician named Bernie Sanders has  started a revolution .  Nothing riles me up quite like the sound of revolution, so I immediately clicked over to Bernie’s  official website  -- ready to join a hardcore rebellion. I had been assured by so many smart activists that Sanders was a genuine revolutionary. I came looking for revolt, insurrection, mutiny, and insurgency. What I found instead was a website in desperate need of a copyeditor. Feel The Bern excerpt #1: “The American people must make a fundamental decision. Do we continue the 40-year decline of our middle class and the growing gap between the very rich and everyone else, or do we fight for a progressive economic agenda that cre

Why are so many brave soldiers and veterans killing themselves? Are they coming to the realization that they were never fighting for freedom and democracy as they were told? Are they learning that the pretexts they are given as justification for endless war are actually warped, historical narratives designed to manufacture their consent? Have they accepted the fact that the true, imperial geopolitical strategies at play are hidden from them and that their sense of patriotism has been cynically manipulated by those who benefit from enriching and empowering the military industrial complex? Are they becoming aware that a complicit media uses psychological techniques to promote endless war as the inevitable solution to every crisis,   ignoring and hiding the fact that these wars accomplish nothing but death, chaos and the empowerment of the very enemy they have ostensibly been sent to destroy? Are they killing themselves not only because they have expe

The 174th Attack Wing at Hancock must stop President Obama is not a lawful combatant. Therefore, under the Laws of War, he is not permitted to kill people or order people to be killed. Those in the military who cooperate with their Commander-in-Chief in targeted executions are obeying orders they should know are illegal, and are violating their oath of office to uphold the Constitution. The Commander of the 174th Attack Wing at Hancock is Colonel Semmels. He needs to know. It is ironic to note that all the men at Guantanamo were denied POW status (aka professional courtesy) because our lawyers easily saw that men not in uniform are unlawful combatants.  Will Obama attempt to claim POW status, if he is captured? Commander in Chief powers The unenumerated “Commander-in-Chief powers” are as follows: The heads of the military must obey his lawful orders. That’s it. The reason for having the military obey a civilian is obvious: General Curtis “there are no innoc

Photo credit: Mickey Z. Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Nov. 9, 2010 “You'll always be the best that America has to offer the world.” (Barack Obama, to veterans) November 11 is the day we must remember the brave warriors who have protected and preserved our beloved way of life. You owe your liberty to them so don’t think for one goddamned minute you’re free to ignore such an important day. Got me? For decades, Veterans Day has been a solemn time for sharing gallant tales from, say, the Good War or about those who fought off the savage hordes who dared to protect their homeland of Vietnam from invasion. But this year, patriots everywhere might wish to consider doing something new. For example, you could spend your November 11 in quiet contemplation of those intrepid heroes who unselfishly risked the agony of carpal tunnel syndrome as they courageously pushed the buttons and computer keys to launch cruise missiles and predator drones at brown-skinned Thir

CINDY SHEEHAN'S SOAPBOX NOVEMBER 8, 2015 GUEST: Robbie Martin TOPIC: A Very Heavy Agenda CLICK THE IMAGE FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THE FILM    DESCRIPTION OF  A VERY HEAVY AGENDA Part 1: A Catalyzing Event - 10.15.15 Cheney, Wolfowitz and Rumsfeld were ubiquitous in the news media as they took every available opportunity to market to America an aggressive preemptive war policy. But from where did their ideas originate? The answer is a tightly knit and eminently well placed group of neoconservative thought leaders, chief among them Bill Kristol and Robert Kagan. Part 1 begins in the panicked weeks after 9/11, as Kagan et al. seized upon the hysteria surrounding the anthrax letter attacks to further shape America’s perception of reality, planting the seeds for endless future military engagements. George W. Bush may have been understandably perceived as an idiot, but watching these wonks and academics drive the ideological engine f

Dear Friend/Supporter, 2015 has been a personally and globally challenging year. Even though the US Imperial Stormtroopers are tromping all over the world (at the behest of Emperor Obama), the response by the people has been utterly underwhelming. Cindy Sheeha

Photo credit: Mickey Z. Mickey Z. -- World News Trust Nov. 6, 2015 Bernie Sanders, born in 1941, remains forever young . Germaine Greer, born in 1939, is a dinosaur . Welcome to the patriarchy . Presidential candidate and current liberal darling Bernie Sanders is the 74-year-old “insurgent” leader of a “revolution.” He remains “fiery,” has been compared to abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison , and regularly draws huge crowds of supporters, many “in their teens and twenties.” Even when he’s grumpy, it’s because “he's thinking about vets who need surgeries, guest workers who've had their wages ripped off, kids without access to dentists or some other godforsaken problem that most of us normal people can care about for maybe a few minutes on a good day.” Even when he’s frumpy, it’s seen as a positive. “Sanders,” explains Tim Murphy at Mother Jones , “has never put a premium on aesthetics, but he does have a style.” Pioneering feminist autho