Author Archives: Rise Up Times

Why Police Defunding Should Remain on the Reform Agenda, by Yohana Beyene

Incidents like these are a recurring nightmare for Black people. But it is especially tragic in a city where an effort to replace the police force with a Department of Public Safety informed by a public health approach was voted down amidst exaggerated rhetoric warning about the impact of “defunding” on public safety.

Chris Hedges: Worthy and Unworthy Victims

Worthy victims allow citizens to see themselves as empathetic, compassionate, and just. Worthy victims are an effective tool to demonize the aggressor. They are used to obliterate nuance and ambiguity.

Chris Hedges: Chronicle of a War Foretold

“The war industry did not intend to shrink its power or its profits. It set out almost immediately to recruit the former Communist Bloc countries into the European Union and NATO. Countries that joined NATO, which now include Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro, and North Macedonia were forced to reconfigure their militaries, often through hefty loans, to become compatible with NATO military hardware.”

Changes at Rise Up Times, A New Look!

A new look for Rise Up TImes, coming soon.

Away with Borders! Why We Need Less Restrictive, More Open Borders and Eventual Border Elimination

“Detaining immigrants is a big and profitable business whose product is human misery.  It is estimated that over 75 percent of detainees are detained in for-profit detention centers.”

Greg Palast, Georgia: Vote-Fixing, Secret Vote-Crushing, Defeating Mass Voter Purges

The new vote-fixing game in Georgia By Greg Palast  for FlashPoints  February 12, 2022  Once again, it’s down to Georgia in the November 2022 midterm elections. Senator Reverend Warnock is running for reelection, and Stacey Abrams is running for governor against the incumbent Brian Kemp. It’s not a question of who’s going to win. The GOP’s […]

UKRAINE: Articles of Interest

Chris Hedges, Veterans for Peace, Abby Martin with Brian Becker, Robert Parry on Nuland, Ralph Nader, Jeff Cohen, Medea Benjamin

Diana Johnstone: US foreign policy is a cruel sport

What is truly diabolical is that, while constantly accusing the Russian bear of plotting to expand, the whole policy is directed at goading it into expanding!  Because then we can issue punishing sanctions, raise the Pentagon budget a few notches higher and tighten the NATO Protection Racket noose tighter around our precious European “allies.”

The U.S. Role in the Saudi-Led War in Yemen, WAMM Video Discussion

“The U.S. continues to fuel the Saudis War on Yemen. Join us to understand this conflict and ways to end U.S. involvement with two knowledgeable and committed activists.”

Hedges: The Greatest Evil Is War

The merchants of death are Satanic.

Part 2: Where is the world class museum? Black Lives Minneapolis: Dred Scott and George Floyd, by Susu Jeffrey

Jim Crow laws or “black codes” began with the 13th Amendment as local and state legal restrictions and lasted on paper or in-practice ever since. “Jim Crow” was a black minstrel figure.

International Emergency Online Rally: No War in Ukraine – No to NATO

“This is URGENT! We are horrified at the escalation of the conflict in Ukraine. We must come together across borders to demand a diplomatic solution to the present crisis.”

40 Years of WAMM: Reflections on Then, Action Now! with an Update from Polly Mann

WAMM has a proud history of saying “never a U.S. military intervention or war without an opposition.”  By Kristin Dooley, WAMM Director Women Against Military Madness (WAMM) was founded on January 16, 1982 at a conference at the Newman Center, which once stood on the East Bank Campus of the University of Minnesota (UMN) in […]

Video: Ukraine on Fire

“Ukraine on Fire” by Igor Lopatonok provides a historical perspective for the deep divisions in the region which lead to the 2004 Orange Revolution, 2014 uprisings, and the violent overthrow of democratically elected Yanukovych. Covered by Western media as a people’s revolution, it was in fact a coup d’état scripted and staged by nationalist groups […]

Part 1: Where are the school texts? Black Minneapolis includes Dred Scott and George Floyd, by Susu Jeffrey

“Although Dred Scott’s name and date of birth are not certain the fact that the Dred Scott Case is one of the most important Supreme Court cases is indisputable.”

How to Respond to War Threats on Russia, UNAC Panel

How to Respond to War Threats on Russia – Understanding U.S. Objectives – The Role of NATO, a U.S. Commanded Military Alliance – The U.S. antiwar movement to make plans to oppose U.S. war drive. What is the role of the U.S. of provoking war in Ukraine? The role of Russia and Putin? How should […]

John Pilger: Have Western Democracies Mutated Into War Propagandists?

“The war hysteria that has rolled in like a tidal wave in recent weeks and months is the most striking example. Known by its jargon, “shaping the narrative,” much if not most of it is pure propaganda.”

Glenn Greenwald: The Neoliberal War on Dissent in the West

“That tyranny exists only in Western adversaries but never in the West itself is treated as a permanent axiom of international affairs, as if Western democracies are divinely shielded from the temptations of genuine repression.”

Chris Hedges and Mark Rudd Discuss Self-Destructive Forces on the Left

” Blinded by hubris, intoxicated by the lust for violence and hypermasculinity and infected with the disease of moral purity, the leaders of the Weather Underground destroyed the largest antiwar movement in the country.”

My Life with Maus, Or How I Was Banned… by Tom Englehardt

“Tennessee school board banned Spiegelman’s book on the grounds, at least nominally, that it contained naked cartoon mice — Jewish victims in a concentration camp and Spiegelman’s mother, who committed suicide, in a bathtub — and profanity as well (like that word “damn!”).”