Empires come and go. They’re sometimes long, sometimes short. But ultimately they fall. Hubris, incredible arrogance, is often the element that brings the mighty down. The U.S. is not immune from decline. With its ruinous wars, bloated Pentagon budget, military bases all over the earth, grotesque levels of inequality and an economy that spews red ink we are witnessing its diminishing power. Recall the words of President Eisenhower in his 1961 Farewell Address. He warned of the dangers posed by “the military-industrial-complex” and its “potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.” Recorded at the University of California.

[Johan Galtung] The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

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The Iran-Israel attacks and the prospects of a wider Middle East war have dominated the news. Meanwhile, the bloodbath in Gaza continues. Genocide is the crime of crimes. We are witnessing it in real time in Gaza. The UN says, “The entire population of Gaza is enduring destruction at a scale and speed without parallel in recent history. Nothing can justify the collective punishment of the Palestinian people.” Israeli Prime Minster Netanyahu’s promised “mighty vengeance” quickly became genocide. As Chris Hedges points out racism enables genocide. He says, “Arabs, like all those with darker skin, are worth less in this moral calculus. This explains the outrage over the murder of seven employees from the World Central Kitchen and the silence over the killing of over 175 UN” Palestinian aid workers. Those who remain silent in the face of genocide are complicit.

[Chris Hedges] What the Genocide Says About Us

Power. What is it? Political theorist Robert Dahl gave one example. He said, “A has power over B to the extent that he can get B to do something that he would not otherwise do.” Why is it that often that those who are on top are the wrong people? The high rollers and the nabobs lust for power behind a smokescreen of homilies about doing good. Today, more and more power is concentrated in the hands of the few, thus weakening democracy. Who wields it? How is it allocated? What are effective ways to ensure power is not abused and serves the societal greater good? How can we organize and protect ourselves from those seeking personal power and profit? How can we get the right people on top?

[Brian Klaas] The Wrong People at the Top

"India's democracy is being systematically disassembled,” says renowned writer and activist Arundhati Roy. She adds, “Any kind of dissent is just smashed with an iron fist." Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party openly espouse Hindutva, a racist ideology rooted in a mythical past and fueled by magical thinking. It’s a supremacist doctrine that privileges and elevates one group, Hindus, over all others. Its animus toward Muslims is particularly acute but Christians and other minorities also incur its wrath. Hindutva nationalists want to dominate Kashmir, India’s only Muslim-majority state. The Himalayan region has endured decades of occupation by hundreds of thousands of Indian troops. There is resistance. Tens of thousands of Kashmiris are dead and missing. Human rights violations are routine. Yet the Kashmiri quest for azadi, freedom, continues.

[Mohamad Junaid] Modi, Hindutva & Kashmir

The award-winning Oppenheimer film has brought attention to the origins of the atomic bomb and the anguish of its inventor. Almost 80 years after that first explosion in New Mexico, the threat of global Armageddon not only remains but has increased. Until and unless nuclear weapons are abolished, humankind will always be in danger of massive death and destruction. Yet instead of moving toward abolition, the U. S. is upgrading its arsenal. The Doomsday Clock is ticking. Sooner or later, intentionally or unintentionally, terminal war will destroy the planet. The only way to prevent that from happening is to eliminate all nuclear weapons. As long as they exist, humanity hangs by a thread.

[Johan Galtung] The Decline and Fall of the American Empire

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